Code Lyoko: Generation, Book 2: The Monster War
by TechnoSam
Summary: After the Rise and Fall of ANAX, our heroes are confronted with a new adventure. With three forces now battling on Lyoko, how will the Lyoko Warriors decide who to trust, and what will the results of their choice be? Find out in Book 2 of the CLG Series!
1. Prologue and Chapter 1

**Welcome to Code Lyoko: Generation, Book 2: The Monster War! This book is the sequel of "The Rise of ANAX," which you'll need to read for this to make any sense. You can find it in my profile. There are six total books in this series. Book 2 is approximately 70K words long. Book 3 is still being written.  
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**DISCLAIMER: ****I do not own Code Lyoko or its themes, MoonScoop does. I created the Original Characters and plots of this story, but the idea of Code Lyoko belongs to MoonScoop, not to me.**

**All that applied to the previous book apply to this one. I have the PDF of this book available, and the pictures are there. You can also find me on the Code Lyoko Veterans forum.**

**As a final note, you can check out the wiki- tsclg(dot)wikia(dot)com.**

**Please enjoy the story, and leave me a review!**

* * *

><p>Code Lyoko: Generation:<p>

Book Two: The Monster War

Written by: TechnoSam

Illustrated by: lastmanstanding

* * *

><p>Prologue<p>

The Lyoko Warriors sat in the Factory. Franz Hopper had just finished talking to them.

"I need to scan each of you again to reverse the alterations the Scanners made to you," Franz said.

"Can that be done?" Jeremy asked curiously.

"Yes," Franz replied. "The process is not something you can understand right now, as you do not know exactly how the Scanners work. I will explain later."

"So why do we need to have the alterations removed?" Aelita asked. "From what I can tell, we're fine."

"Yes, that is true," Her father said. "But I believe that it is a necessary process. It will fully complete the closure of your adventures."

There was no need to argue with Franz Hopper. He had his reasons. If the government ever ordered an investigation, they wouldn't be able to prove anything from DNA scans. If Franz did not carry out the operation, then they were vulnerable, because the Lyoko signature could be detected in their DNA.

So in a matter of minutes, everyone had been scanned, including Franz and Anthea.

Franz then put the SuperComputer in sleep mode. It would be a real shame to shut it off after all his work on it, and due to Lyoko's coding interface _no one _would be able to tell that this computer hosted the Anti-Carthage Agent: XANA. Or so everyone thought.

Over the next few days, Franz and Jeremy would run a coding process on all the non-self-activating programs, rendering them unusable. Again, this was to protect security.

After they had been scanned, the group-or should I say, _family- _left the Factory.

From all appearances, the next few years were quiet and peaceful. Franz, Anthea, and the Lyoko Warriors used some of their spare time to fix up the Hermitage to be lived in again. Jeremy scribbled some more notes in the book on the Punic Wars.

If you happened to be a super-advanced spy program who had managed to find its way into a SuperComputer with no access, you would have seen an incredible sight.

Digital power swirled constantly. XANA was on the move. When he had first been destroyed, all his Replikas had been taken out as well. But his carefully constructed SuperComputers remained on Earth, untouched. These computers had backup data that allowed an exact replication of XANA to be spawned out. With barely any time to spare, XANA re-inserted himself into the _first _SuperComputer.

There was one thing that could not be copied though: The Keys to Lyoko. This complicated his plan, but he knew it could still work.

XANA had never been able to create Lyoko Data. He could not make his own Replikas; he had to steal Waldo's data to do it. In the same way, he could not create another AI like himself to help as he had planned. Fortunately, he could always thieve data again. He used this to create ANAX.

In these years, Lyoko changed. The key system returned to Sector 5, as Franz had never programmed that in anyway. Lyoko itself had evolved that.

Since Franz and Aelita had had their Lyoko essence removed, the Keys to Lyoko were dispelled as well. Backup copies were stored in the Core, and other copies evolved into Info Orbs. Several other programs became Info Orbs as well.

Fortunately, XANA was not able to access these Info Orbs. When Lyoko was in sleep mode, it was still active, but inaccessible. Of course, XANA had a plan for that too...

Chapter 1

Life for us Lyoko Warriors had changed considerably.

For one, there were several physical differences. Our eyes of course posed several problems. As long we had our minds on Lyoko-related subjects, our eyes would glow according to our Lyoko Colors. It was difficult to conceal this, for the change was not instant. If I was working on a program before class, by the time I got to breakfast, my eyes would still be glowing. We avoided direct eye contact with others when possible.

Also, my body felt slightly different. I couldn't describe it, but it just seemed different.

Since XANA had escaped from the SuperComputer, things were quiet. There hadn't been an active Tower for weeks.

One day, Sean sauntered into my room early in the morning.

"Wassup?" He causally asked.

"Not much," I answered from my computer. "Things are still quite on Lyoko. I'm not picking up _any _digital activity, not even a single monster. Of course, just because I can't detect it, doesn't mean that something isn't going on."

"What's that supposed to mean?" He asked.

"Well, I'm sure that ANAX and XANA aren't twiddling their thumbs all this time. They're cooking up something sinister, and the fact that I can't detect any activity bothers me."

"Why is that?"

"Well it means one of two things. Since we know that our evil little friends are doing _something_, it can either be that they have corrupted the Super Scan - which is entirely possible, they've done it before – or they're doing something beyond the scope of the Super Scan. I'm not sure which is worse."

"Well then," Sean said, not nearly concerned as I was. "I'll leave you to it."

I turned back to my work. According to the info in Jeremy's journal, I had been programing some vehicles for us. They could help us fight more effectively. I was having a lot of problems with them though. I was clearly missing some data. I had considered making an exertion to Sector 5, but I didn't know what strings I was missing, and I would waste too much time trying to find them. For now, I focused my efforts on figuring out what I was missing.

Sooner than I would have liked, I had to quit and go to class.

"How our things with our friends?" Alyssa asked me before school.

"Still quiet," I replied. "I'm working on preparations for when they wake up again."

"So how's that coming?" Brittany asked.

"It's coming," I told her. "I'm missing some important program strings, and once I figure out which ones, we can go to Sector 5 and get them."

"Sounds cool," Tennent said. "What might these preparations be?" He inquired with a grin. "New weapons? Powers?"

"About," I said. "It'll be a surprise," I said to annoy him. I knew Tennent hated any form of patience.

School that day was relatively boring. It was not so in the digital sea, far below Lyoko.

* * *

><p>ANAX continued to run. XANA had been on him for weeks. The pursuits never lasted long. XANA would find ANAX at his leisure, and a brief but furious skirmish would ensue. ANAX would begin to run out of power and would be forced to run and hide.<p>

XANA almost never pursued. It seemed as if he had other more important matters to attend to, which in actuality, he did.

ANAX continued to draw power from the Internet, but he knew that this could not last for long. Soon, people would notice that their websites had a drop in server power, as it was stolen by ANAX. If enough of these problems were detected, ANAX could have quite a mess on his hands.

Of course, his mind was not focused solely on survival. The way his programming worked required him to have a purpose. Without one, survival was pointless, as he had no goal.

His programming was based on the original program for XANA. More on how the relation works will follow.

Suddenly, ANAX detected something from behind him. He whipped around to find the massive spectral form of XANA waiting.

"You're finished, you fool!" XANA screamed. "I will end your life here, and then I am free to conquer the world."

It was in that moment that ANAX received his purpose.

"And why must you conquer the world?" ANAX asked calmly. XANA was taken aback by such a question. He still had an answer though.

"To _cleanse _ the planet," XANA said. "The human race is corrupted with their sin. They destroy themselves in pointless wars, demolishing the creation in the process. They are filled with spite for each other, and I must eliminate them in the interests of the planet!"

"XANA, _you _are the fool!" ANAX quipped. "In your insane quest for power, you stoop to the same levels of depravity you accuse your enemy of!"

Surprised by this retort, XANA floated backwards. "I don't have to justify or explain my motives to you!" XANA barked.

"Oh don't worry, XANA," ANAX said with quiet strength. "I know your _true _motives."

XANA roared in fury. "Die, fool, you will die!" He hurled massive energy volts at ANAX, most of them impacting.

He had no other options. ANAX fled back to Lyoko, with XANA hot on his tail.

* * *

><p>At lunch, the principal came into the cafeteria with Jim.<p>

"May I please have your attention," he pleaded. The noise in lunch room did not abate one decibel.

"I need it _quiet,_" Mr. Dunbar begged.

After his third attempt, Jim bellowed. "Quite down everyone!" No other voice carried the authority of Jim's, and the room silenced.

"Thank you, Mr. Morales," the principal said straightening his jacket.

"I would like to announce that the construction of the Student Hub will begin shortly," He said. "For those who have not heard, this building will be a circular structure in the center of the campus. This building will contain the new lockers, as well as a computerized system for your classes. This building will make navigation of Kadic simpler, and the new computer system will give you more free time later in the day."

The last statement brought some cheers.

"Thank you for your attention, and have a good day," he said leaving the room.

"Hey, this is cool!" Tennent intoned from his side of the table. "Now I'll have more time to play video games!"

"Or maybe you can use the free time to get some studying done," Brittany told him.

"Ah, I do enough of that," Tennent said.

"Well you'd never know if by your _grades!_" Alyssa said laughing.

After a while, my friends noticed my seriousness. "What's the matter?" Alyssa asked.

"Did you hear what he said?" I asked. "A _computerized _system. This could give XANA and ANAX more avenues from which to attack. I'm just worried about what he can do."

"Bah," Tennent said shrugging. "You worry too much, Einstein."

"Maybe you're right," I said.

* * *

><p>Later that day, I was messing with the vehicles. Unexpectedly, a window popped up on my screen. There was an activated Tower! Just a few seconds later, another Tower was activated!<p>

_Oh no, _I thought. _We're in for it now!_

I called up my buddies and alerted them. Within a few minutes, we were all headed to Lyoko. We didn't know what the attack was, and since XANA had just woken up again, we figured we'd be better off getting all of us to the Factory at once.

Fortunately, neither Tower had an attack on Earth planned.

I met with Sean and Brittany in the Park.

"Are Tennent and Alyssa ahead of us or behind us?" Brittany asked.

"I don't know, I haven't seen them," I said.

"We'd better not wait," Sean intoned.

So we headed down to the sewers. In about a minute, we had our answer, Tennent and Alyssa's skateboards were still there, so we knew they hadn't come this way.

We grabbed our transportation and headed off. As we sped towards the Lab I began to grow more and more worried about what ANAX and XANA were plotting. It had to be something big.

We eventually reached the Lab.

"So what's the deal with these two Towers?" Sean asked.

"I don't really know," I said typing on the computer. "They are both in the Desert Sector, and both are quite near to each other."

"Well that doesn't make much sense," Brittany said. "If ANAX wanted to make trouble for us, he would have put the Towers in different Sectors, to make them hard to get to."

"Yeah," Sean said. "But you seem to have forgotten something."

"What's that?"

"This is the first attack since XANA and ANAX have broken free from the SuperComputer. That tells us a few things. The first is that this attack is probably quite important in some way. Seeing as there is no XANA activity on Earth, we can conclude that something _really _big is up. Plus the fact that the Towers are close together. Every time we have an easy time repelling an attack, we know to expect trouble."

A few seconds of silence followed.

"Wow, Sean," I said. "That's a pretty good analysis," I complemented him.

"Why thank you, my good friend. I think we have more to worry about than that though," He replied.

"Right," I said. "If only Tennent and Alyssa would get here!"

We didn't have too long to wait. After a few minutes, they arrived, separated by about a minute.

I informed them of our situation, and then started the virtualization process.

"Transfer, Sean ... Transfer, Tennent," I said. "Scanner, Sean ... Scanner, Tennent," I activated the scanning.

"Virtualization!" I said as I hit the enter key to complete the process.

Then I virtualized the girls, and then I transported myself to Lyoko. We fell down and landed on a wide swath of Desert land. Two bridge-like structures extended from the far edge. The Towers were on the end of each of these, and I estimated that the Towers were about 100-150 feet apart.

I noticed something that freaked me out. The Tower on the right was a dark blue. The Tower on the left was a blood-red. It was the same color we had seen a couple times before.

"Okay... What's the deal here?" Tennent asked.

We all shrugged. I had but one guess. Perhaps ANAX had activated one Tower, and XANA had activated the other. I would suppose that ANAX's Tower was the dark blue one, since we had seen that color the most. XANA had only recently gotten more power back.

But there still left the question of why the Towers were close together. If ANAX and XANA had an alliance – which was my logical deduction – then they would try and make it very hard for us. I was about to receive a startling revelation.

Several moments of silence followed. I didn't really know what to expect, seeing as there wasn't a monster anywhere.

Soon, I noticed that there was a mass of energy converging on my radar. "Hey guys," I said. "It looks like something's about to happen. I'm getting a high energy reading on my screen."

"Here we go," Alyssa said.

The first visible change came from near the blue Tower. Two giant orbs of white light began to swirl side by side. More invisible energy built up and soon it reached its climax.

I noticed the green SpikeSaur coming from behind us, and I warned the Lyoko Warriors of this as well.

Soon, a black and a light blue SpikeSaur emerged from the energy fields, and about 20 more of ANAX's monsters materialized behind them.

An instant later, an innumerable amount of XANA's monsters materialized near the red Tower.

"Woah!" Tennent cried.

The monsters dropped onto Lyoko with the force of an earthquake, and a nanosecond later, chaos broke loose.

Faster than I can describe, we were thrown into the whirlwind of battle. Lasers flew everywhere, some flashing dangerously close to us. We scattered, and I rolled behind a large rock.

When I looked out from my hiding spot, I was nearly blinded with the flashes of light going everywhere. The monsters that ANAX controlled shot out light blue lasers, while XANA's shot dark red.

I was confused beyond my belief. Why was this battle happening? We didn't even seem to be the targets!

Soon, we regrouped. The battle had spread quickly, and now there was nowhere safe. We kept on the move.

"What on earth is going on here?" Brittany asked, her eye's wide in a mixture of surprise and fear.

It is impossible to describe our bamboozlement. For months, we had gotten used to the fact that ANAX was trying to help XANA out. Seeing this sudden change, we didn't really know what to do.

"I don't know any more than you do," I told her.

"Well we can't just run around here trying to avoid being shot! We've got to do something!" Sean exclaimed.

"He's right," Tennent said. "What do we do?" He turned to me.

Being the unofficial leader did have its downsides. I chewed the matter over in my mind. Of course, this was quite difficult due to the chaos of warfare going on around us.

"Who do we fight?" Alyssa asked.

"XANA," I said in a snap decision. "He was the first corrupted program, and he outnumbers ANAX 15 to 1."

"I don't follow that logic," Brittany said.

"I'll take whatever works!" Tennent yelled as he blasted a Blok.

XANA's monsters began to direct some of their fire more directly towards us. ANAX's, on the other hand, covered our flanks, offering supporting fire.

The three SpikeSaurs were quite near invincible, as their eye was shielded. Still, after taking several blasts from a MegaTank, it seemed as if the armor was cracking. We had to move fast.

"Guys, we have to get to the red Tower!" I proclaimed. "We can deactivate it if we push through!"

I got several nods indicating that I was understood. It seemed as if ANAX's monsters understood me. They formed a triangle structure, and we sliced through XANA's ranks.

I watched as Brittany got through the monsters and headed to the Tower.

_Yes! _I thought. Several Swoopers and a few Ghosts headed off to guard her.

I checked my Life Points, and saw that they were quite low.

It was a dumb mistake, and a couple of Kankrelats took advantage of me and devirtualized me.

The bolts slammed into me blowing me backwards and sending me into darkness. Soon the darkness gave way to blinding light, and I fell out of a Scanner.

I staggered to the elevator, and I noticed Alyssa had been devirtualized as well. Together we went up to the Lab.

By this time, the Tower was deactivated, and most of XANA's monsters had disappeared. The ones that hadn't were soon dispatched.

"Great work everyone!" I said, relieved. The Tower activated by ANAX deactivated itself, and a new window popped up on my screen.

"What's all this about?" I said curiously.

"Hello?" I heard. My mouth dropped open.

**Author's Notes: First of all, I have to point out that the last line in this chapter is ANAX talking. If you read the PDF, you see a special font and color that only appears when ANAX talks, so by this point, the reader should recognize that this is ANAX. This isn't possible on FanFiction, but if you'd like the PDFs, just send me a Private Message.**

**It will be a while before I update this book any further. I just wanted to get the first chapter up so that I can link people here, but if you've finished book 1 and really want to read book, I'll send you the PDF. Thanks a bunch!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Sorry for such a long wait, everyone. I'll be posting a lot of chapters today, and more will soon be following. Thanks for your patience, and please enjoy the story!**

Chapter 2

I said nothing until my friends had arrived. The voice repeated itself several times in this wait.

When my friends all got up to the Lab, I asked, "Who's there?"

There was a very rushed reply, and then the communication was cut off. "I am ANAX. I need to meet you on Lyoko at three o'clock tomorrow."

And that was it.

"Well!" Tennent said after several long moments. "Tell me I'm hallucinating!" He begged.

"I don't think so," Sean told him.

This event added to our shock.

"What do you think guys?" I asked. "Do we meet with ANAX on Lyoko tomorrow?"

I only got shrugs. Of course, that's why I was asking the question: I didn't know the answer.

There were just too many variables. It seemed as if ANAX and XANA were no longer on the same side. Of course, they probably still were, and this was just a new plot.

And yet, any knowledge about their plan could be helpful.

But back on the other hand, supposing ANAX and XANA had split, there was no reason to think that ANAX wasn't out to get us. In the past, ANAX had been more powerful than XANA, so maybe we had already made wrong choices by helping ANAX.

I could continue this circle of thoughts for quite a while, tracing possible paths and scenarios.

Tennent summed it up best, "I think that we'll all think clearer with some sleep and some food."

There was no arguing that. Due to the recent volt of excitement and confusion, we couldn't really think straight.

* * *

><p>After some down time, we had come to a conclusion by lunch the next day. We had to risk going to meet ANAX. If we did nothing, things would continue, and we wouldn't know what we were fighting. That seemed wrong.<p>

So at three we headed for Lyoko. Of course, it wasn't all that simple. Things happened throughout the day, but nothing is worth recording here.

ANAX hadn't left me any coordinates, or even a sector, so I chose the Desert's Way-Tower vicinity at random.

Our bodies materialized out of digital pixels and we fell down in a tangible form.

I got up, and brushed the dust off of my legs.

"So what do we do now?" Brittany asked.

I shrugged. "I'm in the dark."

"Perhaps I can spread some light," A voice said.

"ANAX! Show yourself!" Sean demanded.

I checked my LI, and was surprised to see the number of monsters scattered about. There were a number of skirmishes going on, but none where near us. I also noticed the energy from where ANAX began to materialize.

When he was fully formed, a voice echoed from his spectral form.

"Greetings," ANAX said. "I bring terrible news. When XANA and I escaped from the SuperComputer, XANA betrayed me. He attacked me and tried to kill me."

"Good riddance," Brittany muttered. I had similar feelings.

"The details are complex, so for now, I will get straight to my point. My programming instructs me to fight to save Lyoko, so I have come to beg an alliance with you Warriors."

Sean took a bold step forward. "Why should we believe a word you say?" He demanded angrily.

"I know that you have every right to doubt me, and there is no reason you shouldn't. I can only hope that you will trust me, and with time, I will prove where my loyalties lie," ANAX explained.

"_Trust_ you? Trust _you_?" Alyssa said, equally enraged. "After all you've done?"

"For all we know, this is another plot by you and your dark master to destroy us!" I said. We had helped ANAX once, but only because it the other choice was to help XANA.

"While I cannot deny that accusation, as I have no proof, I can guarantee you that XANA has turned against me. You can surely see that even now, XANA attacks my energy with his monsters."

He was right. On my radar, I could see battles raging now. Far away, but still, a battle is a battle.

"You see," ANAX went on. "XANA would never share power with anyone. Seeing as you know his previous plans, you should know this."

That made sense, but there was still something missing. "How do we know that you're not planning on betraying us to take revenge on XANA?" I question. "Now that you mention it, it seems highly likely that XANA would want to take all power for himself, but that doesn't mean that you'd help us."

"Yeah," Tennent said. "How can you help us fight XANA?" He demanded.

"I know secrets," ANAX said. "Secrets about XANA, secrets about Lyoko. I have access to much programming knowledge, and I can assist you in many ways because of that."

"OK," I said. "Suppose we decide to trust you. How are you going to defend yourself from XANA? You're still just as vulnerable, and XANA could still wipe you out."

"I have considered this, and have found only one solution. I wish there was another way, for I fear that you will not trust me with this," ANAX hesitantly stated.

"If you let me into the restricted access part of the SuperComputer, XANA cannot attack me. Like me, he has no access to that part. But you, Sammy, could let me in, and then I can begin telling you all I know."

I wasn't about to do what he had suggested. Giving ANAX full privileges to the restricted access was _asking _for trouble. There's no telling what he could mess up there.

"Whatever you decide," ANAX said addressing us all. "You must do so quickly. My forces cannot hold much longer against XANA's."

Without a word, we huddled out of earshot of ANAX. "If this is a trap, he's set it up good," I said.

"He wants us to think we have little time to consider this matter. So instead, I've got an idea that could give us plenty of time. I can't say anymore here, cause ANAX might still be able to hear us," I said.

"Yeah, but how do we know this idea of yours will work?" Brittany asked skeptically.

"Don't worry," I said. "It'll work."

"Just how sure are you?" Tennent asked.

"Uh... about 84% sure."

"That's encouraging."

"So are we gonna go with it?" Sean asked.

"Yeah, I guess," I said to him. "I'll explain more once we're back on Earth."

We all turned around to face ANAX. If it's possible for a cloud of digital smoke to look anxious, then that's what we were seeing now. It was quite an odd sight; he was scrunched up a bit, and was shaking as if he was low on power. Perhaps he was.

"OK, ANAX, we're going to trust you," I said.

He began to relax.

"But it would be foolish to simply trust you outright, on your word only."

He tensed up again, obviously sensing that there would be a catch.

"I'm going to let you into the restricted access, but I'm barring all the programs there from your use. I'll let you stay there, but I'm not letting you mess with all that's in there," I said.

"Do you know how to do that?" Alyssa asked me.

"I'm pretty sure," I replied.

"So this is where the other 16% disappeared, right?" Sean asked.

"Yeah... I can compress the files in the restricted access without changing the protocol. When I give ANAX the entry code, I can encrypt the other part of the access, making it so he can't get there."

"But how come XANA and ANAX have been able to mess with the Super Scan then?" Brittany asked.

"Well for one, it's not part of the restricted access, and I'm not sure how to put it there. Also, I didn't write the encryption code for that part of the SuperComputer. It's pre-existing, so I can still manipulate it."

"So you'll protect me?" ANAX asked.

"Yes," I replied. "But on one condition: You tell us everything you know about XANA, how he was programmed, and everything else useful that you know."

"Oh yes, of course! Anything to help the fight against XANA."

_We'll see, _I thought.

* * *

><p>After setting up the new system and giving ANAX the codes, he dissipated, and all of his monsters disappeared from my screen. Then I materialized us.<p>

When we regained consciousness in the Scanner Room, I said, "Let's not go up just yet. ANAX shouldn't be able to hear us down here, so let me do some explaining."

"I'm all ears," Alyssa said.

"So here's the way I see it. We have three possibilities: (1) XANA and ANAX are working together. This is highly unlikely, but it's still possible. (2) XANA has betrayed ANAX, and he really is going to help us in our fight. (3) XANA betrayed ANAX, and now ANAX is out for himself, trying to defeat XANA and us, and take over the world," I said.

"OK, that makes sense," Brittany said.

"Now in the case of (1)," I explained. "We're sunk. You saw all those monsters the other day, right? We'd never fight our way through that, and in the meantime, we have ANAX infiltrating the SuperComputer's systems, ready to wreak havoc. As for (3), we'd still be sunk. While ANAX and XANA would exhaust resources fighting one another, they'd still be trying to kill us, and again, with all those monsters, we'd never make it to the Tower."

"You skipped (2), dummy," Tennent said.

"I _know _that," I told him, rolling my eyes.

"If number 2 is true, then it's our only hope. If ANAX sides with us, then he can help immensely. He can provide monsters to fight on our side so we can reach the Tower. He also claims to have information about XANA. Also, I've noticed some weird things about the way ANAX works, and it would be nice to know why it happens that way. Plus, ANAX is a Multi-Agent System, capable of awesome programming. This could also help us."

"So the point is...?" Sean asked.

"My point is: In every scenario but one, XANA or ANAX is going to win. For now, there's only one thing we can do about it, so we have to risk it. Do you follow?"

"Yeah, I follow," Sean said. Soon I had ascertained that everyone understood.

"So let's go up to the Lab and see what ANAX has to say," Brittany proposed.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

We climbed into the elevator and rode it to the Lab. When the door finally opened, we waltzed over to the interface, and I sat down.

In actuality, I had no idea what I was doing. I knew how to get to the restricted access, but I didn't know how to communicate with sentient programs based there. I hoped that ANAX would open a comm line and talk to me.

In the meantime, I played around with the keys, pretending to work. I opened and closed several windows; it's not worth naming them. In any event, my friends believed my act. Soon, ANAX must have noticed my activity and he began to speak.

"Hello, my good Lyoko Warriors," He began. "I shall be eternally grateful for your willingness to trust me, albeit shaky trust, there is some trust nonetheless."

Tennent put a hand on his head. "Too many big words!" He muttered.

I smirked, but said nothing.

"Sammy," ANAX said. "If this is business that I should not be involved in, by no means must you answer me. I must inquire though, as to why you were configuring a transfer for a DNA sequence code which is a combination of a rabbit and a moose."

The smirk faded.

"What did he just say?" Alyssa asked.

"It's nothing important," I said quickly. "I'll tell you later, ANAX. For now, I believe you owe us some explanations."

"Yes, that is right. I don't think we need to worry about XANA attacking, for he has already spent a lot of energy fighting me, and he has other projects to attend to."

This statement made me a little worried. It seemed as if ANAX knew what XANA was going to be doing, and he was trying to cover that up. I was only a little worried though, for it seemed that if ANAX really wanted to deceive us, he wouldn't have mentioned anything about that.

Yet on the first hand again, ANAX could be using reverse logic to make us think that he and XANA _weren't _allied. Ugh. There were just too many possibilities.

"I will start," ANAX said, "with the History of XANA."

_This should be interesting, _I thought.

"First I will explain the reason XANA exists. A military operation called "Carthage," was discovered by a man called Waldo Schaeffer long ago. Waldo wrote a program to combat this threat."

I stopped ANAX. "Did you say, 'Waldo Schaeffer'?" I asked him.

"Yes, I did. Shall I increase the volume?"

"No," I told him. "I heard you."

I turned to Alyssa. "Didn't you say that was your grandfather's name?"

She looked very surprised. "Yes, that _is _his name."

"And it seems as if this 'Waldo Schaeffer,' created Lyoko. Is that right, ANAX?" I asked.

"Yes," He replied. "Why do you ask?"

"We were under the impression that Franz Hopper created Lyoko," I explained. "His name is on the SuperComputer."

"Hmm..." ANAX mused. I noted with some amusement that ANAX made such human noises. It was very unlike a computer program.

"It is possible that these are two different names for the same man. Given the nature of his life, it could have been beneficial to his security. It is impossible to say for sure."

"Well that's interesting," I said. "Please continue."

"So Waldo created XANA. In the beginning, he was not sentient, merely very advanced. At this time, Waldo created what you call 'Sector 5'. You'll notice that this Sector is codenamed 'Carthage.' This is because Sector 5 was made to replicate the way Carthage works, and to give XANA practice on combating it."

"Why would XANA need practice?" Tennent asked. "He was just a program at this point!"

"You are correct," ANAX answered. "XANA was still a Multi-Agent System at this point, and he was created to have adaptability. It was easier to let XANA use this to gain his own methods for taking out Carthage. In a few months, he did so."

ANAX paused, as if considering his next words.

"After some time, XANA became more and more intelligent. The SuperComputer had already been created to run Sector 5. After more time passed, Waldo began to reflect on what was happening to the world. If XANA had failed, the terrorists would have gained a strong foothold due to project Carthage. Waldo began to create the rest of the Sectors of Lyoko, making it to be A World Without Danger for himself and his family."

"So what went so wrong?" Sean asked.

"It was terrible," ANAX said. "Soon, an organization noticed all of Waldo's activities. For reasons unknown to me, they wanted him to shut it down. They resorted to lethal force by hiring bounty hunters to kidnap his wife, Anthea. After which, Waldo worked as quickly as he could to finish The World Without Danger. The organization's threats became increasingly violent, so even though it wasn't finished, Waldo took his daughter, Aelita, to Lyoko with him."

"So who are the people in the organization you're talking about?" I asked.

"I don't really know," ANAX said. "I suspect that they had some past relation with Schaeffer, but I never discovered the connection. It is a mystery that will hopefully reveal itself in time."

"So what happened after Waldo took Aelita to Lyoko?" Alyssa prompted ANAX to continue his story.

I sensed that the moment of truth had arrived. I knew that there was something important ANAX was about to say.

"Waldo counted on XANA to continue developing Lyoko, and to help him power its functions. XANA had long since become self-aware, before the destruction of Carthage. Sadly, XANA cared only for his power. His lust for domination superseded even his primary programming, transforming him into a monster. I don't know why XANA decided to act the way he did, but we can't change any of that."

"Wow," Brittany breathed.

"But what of you?" I asked. "How did you come into being?"

"I'm sure you know of XANA's defeat. After this, he was not dead. Somehow, he survived. He never told me how, so I don't know how he managed it."

"Do you think this same program could be used to defeat him again?" I asked.

"It is unlikely," ANAX replied. "But I suspect that the program used to defeat him was flawed in some way. We would need to recode a portion of it to fix this, but with my knowledge of XANA's programs, I'm certain we can do it."

"So what happened after the first Lyoko Warriors shut the SuperComputer down?" Tennent asked.

ANAX resumed his tale, "First, the SuperComputer was shut completely down. After some time, Jeremy reactivated the SuperComputer to search for Waldo. After this, the Supercomputer was left in sleep mode, allowing XANA to work."

"I do not understand all the details, but XANA cannot create Lyoko data. He cannot alter Lyoko, or anything of that sort. When Waldo created Lyoko, he made it this way. So to create me – The Anti-Nullification Assistant of XANA – He used his own data which Waldo had first used. Fortunately, he could not transfer his evilness to me, only program obedience. He didn't count on it, but my allegiance was programmed to support Lyoko."

"So _that's _why you destroyed the Marabounta to save Lyoko!" Alyssa exclaimed.

"Exactly. It was in my primary programming, and there was nothing that XANA could do about it. When he and I escaped from Lyoko, he turned on me, and attacked me. For weeks he hunted me down. Finally I realized that if I was to complete my programming, and logically, save the world, I must seek your help."

He let out a digital sigh. "So that is my story. I can only hope that you will believe me."

"That's a lot to take in," I commented.

"And I apologize for that. There is little that can be done, for I must provide you with all the information that I can."

I quick look at my friends' facial expressions provided me all the info I needed.

"Your story bears great merit, ANAX, but you must understand that we will have a hard time trusting you."

"Oh yes, I understand completely. After my terrible actions against you and the rest of the planet, you have no basis on which to trust me. All I ask is that you let me prove my loyalty, one way or the other."

"Then we've reached an understanding," I said. My friends were nodding in agreement.

Tomorrow had its own worries.

* * *

><p>Later that day, Alyssa seemed excited that she might be related to the first Lyoko Warriors after all. Seeing as it was improbable that there were <em>two <em>creators of Lyoko, it was logical to assume that Franz and Waldo were one and the same.

In the meantime, it was a morale booster to see how we were all descended of the Lyoko Warriors in some way.

* * *

><p>ANAX lurked in the recesses of the restricted access. It was safe here, but there was little room.<p>

_There must be some way I can earn the Humans' trust, _ANAX thought. After looking through many computer files, he came across the Super Scan.

This brought many memories. More than a few times, this program had been rigged and messed with to manipulate the Lyoko Warriors. With XANA on the prowl, they could not really trust the validity of any reports given by this program.

An idea began forming in ANAX's mind. He knew how XANA worked, and on what functions he worked by. With some help from the data available in the restricted access, he was sure that he could block XANA from accessing the Super Scan.

So without delay, he set to work.

* * *

><p>That night, I slept fitfully. My common sense told me not to trust ANAX, but further reasoning always proved that he was our only real chance. Of course, that didn't make me feel any better about deciding to trust him.<p>

Around 3-ish, I awoke from my light sleep. After half an hour of trying to fall back into the comfortable embrace of sleep, I got up and went to my computer.

I was still working out the vehicles, but now I had more of a hold on what I thought I was missing. Of course, directly after school tomorrow, the first thing on my to-do list was to talk to ANAX about this, and see what he could do to help.

I continued to work until about 5 AM, and by then, I didn't have any projects that I felt like working on. There was always Jeremy's journal, but I hadn't turned up any new data in weeks. The code was getting more and more complex.

I took a short nap and awoke to the blaring of my alarm. I heaved myself out of bed, exhausted from my lack of sleep.

Looking in the mirror, I noticed that my eyes had turned orange, indicating the presence of Lyoko in me. The color seemed to emerge at the strangest of times. It always emerged whenever I was thinking about Lyoko, and of course, while I was on Lyoko, but it seemed random other times. I had begun to notice a pattern, but it wasn't much of one. It seemed that early morning and late at night was when it activated itself, although it was becoming more and more infrequent. I figured that I didn't have anything to worry about, so I put it out of my mind.

I met Sean and Tennent in the showers. I noticed that their eyes had turned as well. It was a strange thing, but I didn't bring it up. Later, I would see the connection.

"So," Sean asked. "How'd you sleep last night?"

"Not too well," I answered.

"No kidding!" Tennent interjected. "All anyone would have to do is look at you to be able to tell that you couldn't have slept for more than four hours!"

"Yeah, that about hits the nail on the head," I said.

"Well they've got cinnamon rolls for breakfast, so the sugar should wake you up," Sean said.

"We'll see how well that works out," I said with a grin. "Most of the time, after I get a spike of energy from sugar, I crash about 2 hours later."

After a pause, Tennent said, "Not my problem. Bye!"

We went to breakfast, and ingested all the victuals that they had available for us to consume. Or in Tennent's words, "We pigged out."

Looking our shoulders, we spotted Rachel and her two goons, Julian and Phillip. Luckily, we didn't have to deal with them right now.

"I think Smudge is the pickiest cat I've ever seen," Tennent said. "Recently, he has stopped eating a lot of the food that I give him. I'm still searching for what he'll eat, other than his treats."

Brittany laughed. "It's probably because he's spoiled rotten! He's used to being treated like a king, so he's decided that he can make you feed him what he wants to eat."

"What do you think about that, Sammy?" Tennent asked. "Is that possible?"

"Well," I said. "I'm no expert on cats, but normally I'd say no. After watching how Smudge acts, I'm pretty sure that he is capable of such decisions." I stifled a laugh.

"I don't believe this!" Tennent exclaimed. "How am I gonna fix this?"

"Well it seems to me," Alyssa said. "That there's only one solution."

"What's that?"

"You'll just have to figure out what he wants and give it to him!"

* * *

><p>The rest of the day passed uneventfully. I'm sad to say it, but for the first time I slept through Health class. Mr. Patricks was awfully lenient, so there were at least three other students who slept through the same class.<p>

I really hated to, although I could still get the notes from Brittany or Alyssa. I just didn't seem to be very becoming of my personality. But in any case, I made it through without a reprimand, which was expected, but I still didn't like doing it.

After school, I headed over to the Factory, while Sean and Tennent challenged Buddy and Griffin to a 2-on-2 match of Galactic Invaders XXIIV. I never could understand that game, it was far too complicated.

What I did understand though, was that we needed these vehicles to better fight XANA. So I fired up the interface to SuperComputer, and brought up my research.

"I see you are construction some type of mobility unit," ANAX said.

I jumped, startled. "Um... yeah," I told him.

"It appears though that you are missing the matrix code for the planer coordinates of the thrust. This varies on Lyoko."

"Wow," I said, impressed. "You figured that out quickly."

"It was a simple matter. From my vantage point, I can read the whole program in approximately 4.382 seconds."

I smirked. _Approximately? Ha._

"Is that good or bad?" I asked.

"Well," ANAX replied. "It is good that I am functioning to my proper capacity, but it is bad that you have such a short program. There are many codes that you do not have."

"That's true. In fact, I was hoping you could help me on that," I said.

"I'd be delighted to," ANAX told me.

"So I think that I'm missing the core energy protocol base. If I can find that, then I think that'll be what I need."

"That could work," ANAX said thoughtfully. "But did you ever consider the reverse thrust influx? That could be a complicated procedure using only the core energy protocol."

I was much slower at analyzing data than ANAX was. After a few moments, I replied, "Yeah, I see the complication. I _didn't _think about that."

"May I suggest that we leave the core as it is, and focus on the exterior energy cells? With a capsize procedure, we can implement the influx more easily, while still accomplishing previous goals."

I was slightly confused. I didn't know what he meant by a "capsize" procedure, so I asked. A lengthy discussion followed, and a lot of coding was done. After several hours, we were ready to make a trip to Sector 5.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

"Hey, Alyssa," I said over the phone. "I've got all the stuff worked out. I need you to come to Sector 5 with me so we can get what we need."

"Alright," She said. "I'll tell Brittany. By the way, Sammy, when are we going to get to know what you're working on?"

"Soon," I promised. "Essentially, the faster you get over here, the faster you'll find out."

"I guess I'll have to take that for now," She told me. I detected a smile in her voice.

Now that I had alerted all my friends, I set up the transfers.

When they got to the Factory, Tennent asked, "So what data are we looking for?"

"I could explain it, but it would take more time than there is left in the day, so I don't think it would be worthwhile to spend our time like that. Besides, I'm the one looking for the data; we just need all of us in order to get through Sector 5."

"Well what are we waiting for?" Sean asked. "Let's go!"

And so we did. In less than five minutes, we had taken residence in Lyoko – The Mountain Sector, to be exact.

"Let's hurry!" I said. "There are a whole lot of monsters converging!"

We sprinted for the edge of the Sector, be Hornets were there waiting for us. There was eight of them, and only five of us, so it didn't take them long to reverse our direction.

As soon as we turned around, we were met with quite a sight. Four Tarantulas, two MegaTanks, and six Bloks stood waiting. They didn't shoot or anything. They just stood there, looking very intimidating.

"It appears that you are in need of some help," ANAX's voice erupted from my LI.

Before any of us could respond, five Klankers and two Wolves materialized around us. They dropped down at the same time with a tremendous thud.

In a quarter of a second, chaos broke out, and another battle commenced.

"Ok," Tennent said with a smile. "I have to say, that was pretty cool!"

Between my ducking and dodging, I replied, "Thanks, ANAX,"

"It's nothing. I would send my SpikeSaurs but currently I do not have the energy. They are currently still recovering from the last battle, which was quite taxing," ANAX said.

Sean back flipped and landed beside me. "Too bad," he said. "We could have really used those guys."

With all that out of the way, I now concentrated on the battle. We were outmatched by numbers. While we Lyoko Warriors had considerable more skill than the monsters, we wouldn't win without casualties.

Brittany was having similar thoughts. "Let ANAX distract the other monsters!" She called. "We have to get to Sector 5!"

We turned away from the monsters to run for the edge. Of course, our little hornet friends were waiting for us.

As we approached, I leaped into the air and slashed out with my laser-claws. They unsheathed upon command, and I severed a Hornet. I hit the ground hard, but I kept going.

I noticed that Tennent, Brittany, and Alyssa were making good use of their ranged attacks, thinning the Hornets effectively. After another minute of fighting, we had killed enough of the monsters to break through.

I entered the code "Scipio" and looked behind me. ANAX had lost four monsters, but XANA had only lost two. We needed to hurry.

As soon as the transporter dipped into view, we jumped into its path and shot off to Sector 5.

* * *

><p>When we touched down in the arena, Tennent staggered away.<p>

"Ugh, I feel like I'm gonna heave," He complained.

At that, a very sick thought hit me. What would digital puke be like? I shivered thinking about that. It probably wasn't possible anyway.

After a few seconds, the wall opened at the end of the eye pattern on the floor.

"Well if your stomach is through complaining," Sean said to Tennent, "we can continue."

"I think I'm good now. Blasting some Creepers will help."

He turned to me. "Speaking of which, I need more arrows."

"That's nice," I told him, not moving at all.

A few seconds passed, and then he said, "Well...?"

"Well what? Can I even get a 'please' out of you?"

"Fine," Tennent acquiesced. "Would you _please _reload me so we can get going?"

"I'd be glad to," I said with a smile. I typed away.

"You know," ANAX said. "I could always do that. I can monitor Tennent's ammunition, and when he gets low, and can reload him."

I answered as we ran, "I don't know about that ANAX. You've helped me a lot with my research, but I still don't have much of a basis to trust you. I don't know what you could do if I gave you access to that program, so I think we'll decline that offer."

"I understand," He said calmly. "In the meantime, I must warn you: I cannot send monsters to Sector 5. This sector functions on a different base code as the other sectors, and I don't have the codes for that here. XANA never provided me with the code sequence."

"So in short, we're on our own here," Alyssa concluded.

"Regrettably, yes. I must develop monsters that I can materialize here in order to assist you. But for this mission, I cannot assist you."

"Well that's just great," I said. "I hope we can get past the guard dogs XANA has set for us."

"Oh come on, Sammy," Tennent said with a grin. "You know me- I can take out six Tarantulas in less than thirty seconds!"

"You did that _once,_" Brittany said.

"_And _the Tarantulas were all right in a line, a stupid move on their part," Alyssa added.

"_And _if it weren't for me covering you, they would have blasted you away in no time," Sean said.

"Alright, alright," Tennent said. "I get the picture. It's clear that my superiority is disliked by my comrades!"

Before we could really get going, we arrived at the end of the hallway.

"Alright," I said. "We need to find the key, and fast! We only have a little over two minutes."

"The key is on the northwest wall, twenty feet up," ANAX intoned.

I checked to make sure, and saw that he was right.

"How'd you know that?" I asked him. Sean and Brittany had already taken off to the key, so I could afford some questioning. Hopefully the Creepers would stay away for a while.

"Well it is quite simple. You have the scanning program set to auto, so it appears on the screen. While I can't send many commands on that interface, I can observe. When the window opened, I simply noticed it before it transferred to your LI."

"Cool," I said. I didn't like that. To ANAX, everything seemed simple. It seemed as if he was trying to convince us of something, and that made me think that he was working against us. But so far, he hasn't done anything but help us.

As Sean and Brittany neared the key, the walls shifted, opening several holes. Creepers swarmed through, I counted at least 8 on my screen.

I was about to call a warning, when I realized that it was pointless. The lasers had already begun flying, so the best thing to do was help my friends.

With several bounds, I covered the distance. I unsheathed my claws, and charged at the nearest Creeper. It saw me running up, and began to shoot.

I deflected the first few blasts, and when I got closer, I had to dodge. Soon, I got within slashing range, and I relieved the beast of its head.

That's the thing with Creepers. They had a powerful and accurate laser, but once you got up close to them, they were doomed.

I noticed my friends fighting out of my peripheral vision. Brittany chucked her fans and a monster. The Creeper shot one, deterring it, but he didn't have time for the second. It slashed into him, destroying him.

Sean had lassoed a Creeper by the neck with his whip. With a powerful jerk, he brought the creature down, and stabbed it with his sword.

Tennent on the other hand, Tennent the Bold, Tennent the Awesome, was having problems. He was stuck in a crossfire between two of the monsters, and could do little more than dodge. He fired several Laser Arrows, but they were hurriedly aimed, and missed. He took a couple of blasts into his chest.

I didn't see the rest of what happened; I was assaulted by yet another Creeper. I glanced down at the timer, and saw that only thirty seconds remained.

I leaped up, trying to crash down on the Creeper, but he shot me out of the air, and I crashed down onto digital ground, several feet away. I looked up to see that Alyssa was climbed up to the key.

The Creeper launched several more lasers, but I did my best to roll out of the way. Soon, Alyssa hit the key, and the Core Chamber began to rearrange. The monsters fled, and we were left alone.

"Great job, everyone!" ANAX congratulated us. "That was a magnificent fight!"

"Well magnificent or not, it cost us. I've only got 20 life points left. I got hit twice, and its forty LP a pop. Tennent, the same goes for you."

I continued, "Brittany and Alyssa, you both have 60 left, and Sean is still at the max."

"I hope it's enough to get what we need," Alyssa said.

"It's gonna have to be," I responded.

* * *

><p>After travelling through the new hallway and riding the elevator, we arrived in the Celestial Dome. Its beauty never failed to take my breath away.<p>

I rushed forward with my friends directly behind me. I opened the Interface, and began to work.

"Alright ANAX," I said. "I'm going to need some help here."

He directed me to the data points. One by one, I travelled through them, collecting what we needed.

Very soon, Flying Mantas began to emerge from the data walls.

"Alright," Sean said. "Now for it."

Laser fire erupted around me. A Manta's laser only did 20 Life Points worth of damage, but it would still be enough to put me out of commission.

My buddies did a very good job of protecting me, despite the fact that they were marooned on a very small portion of land. If these experiments proved successful, after tomorrow, that would no longer be true.

I need not record the details of the battle. In the end, we got the data that we needed, and we all got home safe.

* * *

><p>Back in the Lab, Tennent asked me, "So when do we get to find out what the surprise it?"<p>

"Tomorrow," I answered. "I've started the process, and it should run all night. By the time it's finished, my project will be complete, and I can show it to you."

"Boy, _that's _gonna help me sleep well tonight. You know I hate waiting for stuff."

"Exactly," I told him. "That is 67.8 % of the reason why I'm making you wait."

"Wonderful."

So that night we went back to the dorms. The process that I started was the data compliment for the vehicles. It would run in a secluded part of Lyoko, where ANAX guarded it. This program analyzed the structure of the vehicles, and added the coding to Lyoko's database. After this was finished, I'd be able to materialize the vehicles at will, the same way ANAX could materialize monsters.

I myself could hardly wait to ride them.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

The night passed uneventfully. For us at least.

Tyce had picked random victims of another prank, but we weren't chosen. All I knew was that there was a bunch of screams breaking out at the same time. From the laughter that followed, I quickly guessed what had happened.

The next day was Saturday, so we only had class until noon. We decided to skip lunch, much to the disgruntlement of Tennent, in order to get to the Factory early.

"I thought you were dying to find out what this secret was, Tennent," I said.

"Nothing is more important than my food. _Nothing."_

"Well..." I replied. "How's that working out for you?"

"Humph."

With school over for the day, we ran to the Factory. When we reached the sewers, we glided the rest of the way on our boards. When we arrived, I first let ANAX know that we were here, and then started the Transfer process.

"Transfer: Sean ... Transfer: Tennent ... Transfer: Alyssa," I announced.

"Scanner: Sean ... Scanner: Tennent ... Scanner: Alyssa."

I paused, waiting for the Scanners to do their job. "Virtualization." I said.

After I confirmed that they had safely made it to the Ice Sector, I set up a delayed virtualization, and Brittany and I got into the Scanners.

The doors closed, and I was trapped. A whoosh of air lifted me off my feet, and a bright light began to scan my body. I instinctively closed my eyes, and waited for the flash. When it came, I opened my eyes in a digital sky.

"Oof," I said as I landed.

I surveyed the Sector. The ice was a light blue, the sky being dark blue. The normal darker lighting hung over us. It seemed as if everything was in place.

"Alright," I started. "Are you ready for this?" I asked.

"Of course we're ready, you schnitzel!" Sean answered me.

"Ok, ok," I told him. "Cool it!" I smiled.

I entered the commands to bring the vehicles up. I was still unfamiliar with the new commands, so it took a few seconds. After it was done, the vehicles began to load up on my screen. Nothing visible happened on Lyoko though.

I knew that digital energy was now converging into five points. I couldn't see it happening, but I knew that I soon would.

After nearly a minute, I got what I was waiting for. The outlines of our vehicles appeared, and soon the gained color. After that was finished, we saw that they cast shadows, indicating that they were fully formed.

"Cool!" Tennent exclaimed, admiring all the vehicles. "Do we ride these things?"

"Yeah," I said. "The color indicates who they were made for, although all of can ride all of the vehicles.

The one closest to me was called the OverBlaze. I got the name from the blazing orange color it was "painted." A black stripe wound around the bottom part of it. It was like a motorcycle seat, with similar steering mechanisms, but it was mounted on three black repulsor-lift engines.

Farther away, was the OverLoad. Sean's bike was the smallest and fastest. I had designed it to fit with his ninja like personality. I personally liked the sleek black and red color scheme. It rode on two wheels, but they could be retracted for flight. The bike sat very low to the ground, and could be ridden two different ways. The first was by almost lying on top of it, this was for combat situations. The second was similar to the way you would ride a normal bike.

Next to that was the OverBoard. I made Tennent's vehicle based off of Odd's. I had given it the same name, for nothing else suited the design better. I had changed up the coloring a bit though, making it gray and black.

Brittany's vehicle floated in front of her. It was called the OverWing. I had kept the same design as Yumi's, but I had changed the coloring to match Brittany's purple Lyoko color.

The final vehicle, the OverGlide, was a bright pink. It was a pole of sorts, with handles on either side. More protrusions farther to the bottom provided Alyssa with a place to put her feet.

After I had explained the names and basic control to everyone, we hopped on, eager to try them out.

I hit the pedal and shot off. I could control the speed with the handlebars (this went for all vehicles, except Tennent's) but for now, I liked the feel of pressing something with my feet.

We flew all around the Ice Sector, looping high, low, fast, and everything we could think of. We progressed to a canyon, and Sean took off like a rocket. The other vehicles couldn't go quite as fast as his, so he took the lead.

In my enjoyment, I had taken my eyes off of the LI. This proved to be a dire mistake.

Just before we exited the canyon, I heard a blast followed by a grunt.

Quickly, I looked down, and noticed that Sean had been shot by a new kind of monster. From my screen, I couldn't tell too much about it.

My friends quickly deduced what I had, although they didn't know about the new monster, and we zipped around the corner, revealing the beast.

It was at least the height of a SpikeSaur, probably bigger. It was so dark red that it was almost black, but it was indeed red. It only had two limbs, and it didn't use them to move. It slithered along like a snake, except reared up, so that two massive clawed hands and an ugly mug were off the ground. A shiny armor wrapped around the head and the eye of XANA was displayed here. I figured that like the SpikeSaurs, this armor protected it.

"Whew, get a load of that horrible thing!" Tennent said.

Alyssa said, "It looks like it's got the same type of armor that the SpikeSaurs have! We'll have to find a way to get it – oof!" She too was shot from her vehicle.

The monster charged another blast, its mouth glowing from the energy.

I flew in close on the OverBlaze and tried to strike it. It had incredible quick reflexes, as it slashed out at me before I thought I was in range of him. The claw connected, sending the OverBlaze down in a smoking heap. I collapsed on the ground, and tried to run away.

Wordlessly, the monster pinned me with one massive claw and devirtualized me.

* * *

><p>Tennent flew erratically on his OverBoard. He could control it well, but not well enough to dodge the swiping claws of doom. A fist impacted, sending him flying.<p>

He got back up, as was surprised to find his vehicle in working order.

When he got back on, he saw the hopelessness of the situation. Sean had been devirtualized, and Brittany was in the monster's claws. By the time Tennent got there, she was gone.

Alyssa fired an energy field, but it didn't do the monster any harm. While she had the beast distracted, Tennent jumped from the OverBoard and landed on the creatures back. He clawed his way up to the head as quickly as he could.

When he got there, found the place where the armor started. He put his paws in, and tried to pull it away. He thought he felt something shift, but he couldn't be sure. The monster whipped its head around until Tennent crashed to the slippery ground of the Ice Sector again.

The monster loomed over Tennent. It had the normal voice of XANA's monsters, but it drew its words out, like a snake would. "Sssss... You may have new equipment human, but ssso doesss ssXANA! It isss hopelesss!"

With that, the monster dispatched Tennent.

* * *

><p>Back on earth, we were licking our wounds. My chest was really hurting from where the monster had devirtualized me. My friends were suffering similar pains.<p>

"Do you know what that thing was?" Sean asked ANAX.

"It is a next-generation type of monster. XANA stole the design from me and the SpikeSaurs." He answered.

"While I was fighting it," Tennent said, "I was able to get my hands under his armor. It felt like something shifted, but I couldn't be sure."

"Yes," ANAX told him. "If they are anything like the SpikeSaurs, then the armor can come off. This is the only way to defeat them."

"Well," I said. "It looks as if we've got our work cut out for us!"

"Right," Tennent said. "In the meantime, we get to name a new monster!"

"Any suggestions?" I asked.

"Hmmm..." Sean said. "How about 'Slyther', but with a 'y' instead of an 'i'? Y'know, cause they're so sly."

"I wouldn't exactly call them sly," Brittany said skeptically.

"But still," Alyssa told her. "They do slither, and Slyther seems like a pretty cool name."

So 'Slyther' it was.

**Author's Notes: This Chapter has a lot of new stuff in it. The new Slythers, and the Vehicles as well. I would strongly recommend reading the PDF or** **sending me a PM for the pictures of them.**

**Thanks for reading! Please remember to review the story!**


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

The next morning, I awoke to a new message on my computer screen. I had left it on in case of an attack, but for some reason it had come out of sleep mode. ANAX sure was a good programmer.

I read his message. It was short and to the point: Hello Sammy, I cannot communicate orally with you on this computer yet. I don't have access to a voice synthesizer on this computer. I bring news: I have upgraded the Super Scan, so that XANA will not be able to use it against you anymore. I know how his code works, so I have created a very good security system, using what I found in the restricted access. I hope that you can come to the Factory, and discuss it with me in greater detail.

His digital signature was at the bottom. The image portrayed was an upside-down XANA eye. Seeing that symbol brought many misgivings. I still thought that ANAX could be in league with XANA.

* * *

><p>Today for lunch, they had pizza. To me, that meant stay out of the way for as long as possible. You see, a 6th grader named Steve Trotman was a pizza-holic. Those are his own words. He has this system where he can put away his pizza, and get back in line quickly. Somehow, he amasses all that the pizza that Mrs. Tyler will allow him to have. It is quite a violent rampage.<p>

Most sensible students will stay out of this, and wait for the rush to die down. Mrs. Tyler always made sure there was enough for everyone else, so I didn't see a problem.

However, there are some students who dislike the idea of letting Steve go first every time. "It's the principal of the thing," they say.

Tennent, Tizzy, Jett, Zack, Lisa, and Tyce all participated in this "struggle." The try and get their pizza _before _Steve has gotten any. To me, this seemed stupid.

Usually scuffles broke out, although they were kept low key to avoid the attention of a teacher. Once the battle had ended, the rest of the students calmly got their food. Yes, we never got to go first, but we didn't really care.

Today, I didn't feel the need to pursue the old argument with Tennent.

Once things had quieted down, my friends and I found a table. I had already told them the news at breakfast, so they knew what to expect. Given my doubts about ANAX, I saw no need to rush over to the Factory by skipping Art, Music, and Geography. These were the three subjects that came after lunch.

"Why don't we go over to the Factory and see about ANAX after we get done eating?" Tennent suggested. Naturally, he would do anything to get out of class.

"No way!" Brittany said. "It's nothing urgent, and we need to be in school!"

"Aww..."

"I'll bet that's the only reason you wanted to go to the Factory, to get out of school." Sean said.

"Yeah, you got me all figured out," he said.

Nearer to the end of lunch, Rachel walked by.

"Hey Sean, you want to go for a walk with me after class?" She asked.

"Sorry," Sean said. "I don't take walks with tree-huggers."

"What's _that _supposed to mean?" She demanded.

"I saw you the other day!" Sean said through a grin. "I don't hang out with your type."

He downed his last bite of pizza.

Rachel stalked off, huffing and puffing.

"It doesn't take much to get her riled up, does it?" I asked.

"Not when it's concerning Sean!" Tennent laughed.

* * *

><p>So after struggling through Art and Music, and paying close attention in Geography, the school day was over.<p>

As soon as we had dropped off our stuff in our dorms, we headed off to the woods. There was an unusual amount of activity in the woods it seemed. We didn't see any people, but there were quite a few sounds of crunching, snapping, and other woodsy sounds.

We chose a more discreet path, eventually ending up at the manhole in the south-east corner of the woods.

We climbed down the tunnel, rung by rung. When we got to the bottom, we found our rides, ready and waiting. I wondered how long this could go on. The sewers were almost never used anymore, but still, someone would have to come along sooner or later, and what would happen to our boards and my scooter?

There was no real reason to worry about that now though. If it happened, there was nothing we could do about it. We'd have to come up with a solution if it happened.

I refrained from voicing my thoughts, knowing that the response from Tennent would not make it worth my while. And most of the time, he was right. I do worry too much. But I can't help it. I feel like this whole thing is my fault. I didn't have to start up the SuperComputer, but I was looking for adventure. I got more than I asked for.

"Here we are," Brittany said when we arrived. We stowed our transports and climbed up the ladder to the Bridge. I jogged to the entrance with my friends. I slid down the cables hanging from the wall, and when we had all gotten to the elevator, Sean hit the button.

The door hissed open and I heard an alarming sound. "Alert! Alert! Alert!" ANAX's voice was saying.

"Just great," I muttered as I slid into the chair. "Activated Tower in the Forest Sector! That's all we need!"

"Finally, you have arrived!" ANAX exclaimed. "I was worried that something had happened to you."

"Can computer programs get worried?" Alyssa asked.

"It's complicated," ANAX responded. "We don't have time to go into it now."

"So who goes and who stays?" Tennent asked.

Sean volunteered to go back to Kadic. "I'll go too," Alyssa intoned.

"Great," I replied. "That's settled. Good luck! I'll start the transfers now."

My fingers flew across the keyboard, having long since memorized the proper keys to hit.

From the elevator, as the door was closing, Alyssa said, "Good luck to you too." The door sealed.

We descended the ladder leading to the Scanners and clambered in. The doors closed in perfect sync, and light began to dance around me. I closed my eyes, and let the machine do its job.

* * *

><p>In the sewers, Sean and Alyssa raced back to Kadic.<p>

"What do you think XANA's got for us this time?" Sean asked.

"I'm betting that it will be something destructive, probably aimed mostly at us, and at the same time it could be damaging to others, because XANA knows that we can't reverse XANA-related deaths," Alyssa said.

"Yeah, I could have guessed that," Sean said.

When they got back into the park, they hurried over to the school. Just before they got to their destination, they heard a sound. Many sounds.

There was crunching and popping everywhere. They slowed to a stop.

"I don't like this," Sean said.

Almost before he was through speaking, he saw the source of the sound. A line of squirrels had blocked their passage to the school.

"Again with the rodents!" Alyssa exclaimed.

Sean dialed on his cell phone. "Hey, Sammy?"

"Yeah?" He answered from Lyoko.

"The leaping army is back."

"Not the squirrels again!" He moaned.

"I'm afraid so. Better put things in high gear on Lyoko."

In stark contrast to his previous calm nature, Sean bolted towards the squirrels in a frenzy. He knew what would be coming next.

Quickly, he kicked as many as he could, disabling them. Many got away though, and morphed.

Yes, XANA had created morphing squirrels. He had pulled this once before, so we weren't too sure why he had done it again.

The animals tripled in size, and their teeth and claws grew longer and sharper. And of course, as XANA's mark, they spat electricity at Sean and Alyssa.

They could hold out for a little while, but the creatures seemed to be without number. They would soon be overcome.

* * *

><p>On Lyoko, we fell down, and landed on Forest ground. I looked around, and saw that the Tower was not within sight range as I had expected.<p>

"Hey, what happened?" Tennent asked. "I thought you were going to bring us up close to the Tower?"

"That's usually the plan," I answered. I began fiddling with my LI. "It looks like something bugged up."

I studied for a bit more and then realized something. "That's no bug!" I exclaimed.

"What happened then?" Brittany inquired.

"You see this line of code?" I asked, pointing to one of the many holographic screens floating from my arm.

"Yeah..."

"That's the code where I entered our coordinates. We're not at those coordinates," I said. I pointed at a lower code. "Here's where new coordinates were entered! I can trace back the digital signature to-"

That was as far as I got. Three SpikeSaurs had surrounded us. I had been about to say, "ANAX."

"Allow me to explain," Began the green SpikeSaur. "First of all, I do not believe we have ever been properly introduced. My name is Vine."

"Vine?" Tennent asked incredulously. "Why would ANAX give that kind of name to a monster?"

"Would you prefer UU-4256700?"

"He has a point," Brittany muttered.

"This is Sky," Vine said, gesturing to the light blue SpikeSaur. He then pointed to the black one and said, "This is Shadow."

"I am sure that ANAX's interference was not expected. You see, the coordinates you entered would have put you directly into a trap. ANAX knew this by reading the digital activity waves on the screen. XANA was at work. Apparently you failed to notice this, Sammy," The monster gave me a side-long glance.

"So in and attempt to spare you, ANAX changed the coordinates, so you could meet with us."

"That's all fine and good," I said. "But do you mind telling me _how _ANAX edited the coordinates? He's supposed to be stuck in the restricted access." I put my hands on my hips.

There was only silence from the SpikeSaurs.

"That's what I thought," I said.

I turned to my friends. "It's clear that ANAX has found a way out of the restricted access. I guess my coding wasn't high enough."

"That traitor!" Tennent spat.

"Don't be so hasty, young Warrior!" Sky interrupted. "We could have devirtualized you by now, and yet we have made no such move. Use your head. If ANAX was going to betray you, we would have already attacked you."

"And you forget that ANAX has saved you from one of XANA's traps. Our words cannot prepare you for what is waiting." Shadow added quietly.

This is when I received Sean's call on my LI.

"We can't waste any more time then. Let's move!"

We traversed the Forest territory, and turned a corner. I cannot say that I was prepared in anyway by the SpikeSaurs' warning.

Someone was standing in the middle of the path. I recognized her face very well from my nightmares. It was Hannah.

We stopped dead, colliding with each other. Instead of the clothing that she wore when we first discovered her, she wore much darker purple and black. Dark armor covered her chest, hands, and lower legs.

"Oh no," Tennent whispered.

She reached her right hand up in the air and dark purple shadows congealed. They formed into a long staff with four prongs and a purple crystal in the middle.

She slammed the staff deep into the ground and looked up at us.

"I've been waiting for you," She said in a creepy double voice.

* * *

><p>"Run!" Sean yelled. The creatures – you could hardly call the squirrels – had pushed him and Alyssa back deep into the woods. From here, they gained an advantage, being able to attack from the trees. They could also use the trees to circle around the Lyoko Warriors and close them out. They had to get out of there before this happened.<p>

Alyssa was buried under five of the squirrels. Sean grabbed her hand and pulled her up. He bashed the monsters clinging to her and led her away. Soon she recovered enough to run unaided.

"We've got to get to an open place!" She gasped for breath as she ran.

"The only places like that are near more people!" Sean protested.

"But we're not going to hold out much longer!" Alyssa argued. "We can't leave Brittany, Sammy, and Tennent to face XANA alone! We have to make it for their sakes if nothing else!"

"You're right," Sean agreed. "Let's head for the streets. Hopefully people will be able to get out of the way easier there.

Pushing through their exhaustion, they found new reserves of strength they didn't know they had.

When they finally reached the road, they saw that XANA had gotten there first.

* * *

><p>"Yes," Hannah's warped voice went on. "I know you thought you'd seen the last of me."<p>

She began to walk forward and the SpikeSaurs crouched closer to us, trying to protect us.

"You are such fools," She told us. "You can't win against XANA. He's more powerful than you can _imagine._"

Brittany stepped forward. A bold move, considering how I was shaking cat-like boots.

"You forget that XANA was already defeated by humans once!" Brittany proclaimed. "Who's to say that it can't be done again?"

At this, Hannah laughed. "Oh, Brittany," She said with a sad shake of her head. "How little you understand. XANA was too confident in his abilities last time. He waited for too long in destroying the meddlers. He has learned from this mistake, and has forsaken all such plans. You will not last for long."

All the while, she calmly took step after step towards us. Suddenly, Vine lunged at her. I was caught off-guard, and I expected Hannah to be as well.

She was not. She whipped her staff around and thrust it forward. A wave of purple electricity shot out of it and ripped into the SpikeSaur, blasting him backwards. He slumped ten feet behind us. He would not get up again in this battle.

Sky and Shadow charged forward now. By this time, I had realized that battle was upon us. I charged as well, along with Brittany and Tennent.

Hannah dropped to the ground, rolled forward, and stabbed her weapon upwards into the midsection of Shadow.

Sky whipped his tail around and slapped Hannah out of the way. She tried to dodge, but she wasn't quick enough.

At this time, two Slythers materialized and joined the fight.

Brittany ran forward at one of them and tossed her fans. They chinked off the armor.

The Slyther drew back its claw and I saw my chance. I leaped high into the air using my Lyoko Power. I launched a rocket at the monster, and although it did no damage, it caused it to stagger, allowing me to land on its shoulder.

It swiped at me, but I swung to its other shoulder. I took a step up to its head and shoved my hands under the crack. I pulled with all my might.

The monster gave a horrendous screech. I could feel something was giving way.

Brittany stood below keeping it occupied. She ran around and around the beast, throwing her fans in cadence. With its attention divided in such manner, I could work more easily.

Of course, it was still quite difficult to hang on a small piece of armor on a thrashing Slyther.

I had begun to pull the armor upwards. It was still attached firmly to the front of the head, but it had been moved enough. Without moving my hands, I unsheathed my claws. The laser glowed green as it penetrated the eye.

The Slyther reared straight up. I hung on desperately. Without warning, it dropped to the ground and exploded. The blast sent me high into the air and I crashed into the ground below so hard, that I lost 10 Life Points.

"Nice work," Brittany told me.

"Thanks."

* * *

><p>As soon as Vine was flung away, Tennent jumped into action. While Sammy and Brittany took on one of the Slythers, he attacked the other.<p>

Sky was handling Hannah. For the moment at least.

Tennent charged the Slyther, dodging to the left and the right to avoid being hit.

He soon came within range of its claws, and he was bowled over. Shadow the tackled the Slyther and a fight of indescribable viciousness erupted between the two.

Sky had fallen and Hannah stood over him. Tennent launched a few laser arrows at her, distracting her attention.

Soon, Hannah began to attack Tennent.

Tennent jumped over a swipe of her staff, and then ducked the next blow. He spun to avoid the third, and the fourth connected with his stomach. Hannah walked over to him, and shot lightning out from her weapon.

He rolled to the side, but the stream was continuous. He got zapped and lost 30 Life Points.

When Tennent regained his footing, he merely dodged Hannah's blows. He could do little else, for such was the speed with which she attacked.

Suddenly, he got smacked again and collapsed to the ground, dazed.

A few moments later, he noticed that Hannah stood over Brittany, ready to devirtualize her.

"Laser Arrow!" Tennent yelled as he fired.

The Arrow impacted Hannah's back, sending her on top of Brittany. The Lyoko Warrior jumped up and slashed Hannah with a fan and Tennent fired again.

Within seconds, Hannah disappeared it purple lined smoke. It was a process similar to devirtualization.

"We won!" Tennent cried out.

"Now we've just got that Tower to handle," I said.

* * *

><p>Sean's fists were everywhere. Dozens of squirrels had fallen by him, but there was always more. He had lost sight of Alyssa some time ago, and didn't know what had happened to her.<p>

His pants were torn up, and several rips were in his shirt. Where each tear was, a long gash existed as well. He knew he couldn't last much longer.

Vaguely, he had noticed several other townspeople around him flailing, but they passed out of his mind.

Quickly, many creatures jumped him, and he fell to his knees. He flopped onto his back as darkness covered him.

Then a flash of the brightest light washed over him and he knew no more.

* * *

><p>"Return to the Past, now," I said as I hit the enter key.<p>

* * *

><p>Earlier that day, we sat in my dorm, conversing with ANAX.<p>

"I have to hand it to you, ANAX," I said. "Without you and the SpikeSaurs, we never would have beaten Hannah and her monsters."

"No thanks are necessary," ANAX said. "I have only done my duty."

Afterwards, we began to discuss strategies for defeating the Slythers and Hannah. But then a loud noise interrupted us.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

"I can't believe Hannah's back," Sean said. "She's really spooky."

"Yeah," Tennent agreed. "I've had so many nightmares about her. It's terrible, remembering how I first felt about her, and then finding out that she was a puppet of XANA."

Several seconds of sad silence followed.

"Be aware," ANAX said. "I will not be able to spare all my SpikeSaurs for every battle. They are likely to be occupied with other campaigns in this Monster War."

"You mean you're fighting XANA all the time?" I asked.

"Very nearly," was the reply. "It is only because my monsters are more efficient than XANA's that I have survived this long. I have access to very little power."

"And yet you have found a way out of the restricted access of the SuperComputer?" Brittany accused.

"I am sorry for giving the appearance of betraying your trust. I found my way out a while ago, when I improved the Super Scan. Now XANA won't be able to use it against you."

"But how can we trust you?" Alyssa demanded. "We haven't seen much evidence! After all, this could be a trick: we think that XANA can't access the Super Scan anymore, and so we're more vulnerable!"

A digital sigh followed. "What would accept as evidence of my allegiance? The Monster War grows viscous, and now that Hannah has returned it will be even more difficult to protect myself. You must soon decide whether or not you are going to trust me, for I cannot have divided resources."

"Okay, ANAX," I began. "I know I will sound very untrusting to say this, but it must be said. If we tell you what we would accept, then we could no longer accept it, for it might be seen as you simply trying to gain our trust so that you can betray us."

Another sigh.

"But tell me, ANAX," I went on. "What would you do if we denied you our trust? We know of course what you say you will do if we fully trust you. You have already done much of this, and your usefulness is far from spent."

"I would be forced to fight XANA on my own. I would try my hardest, but I am not as adept as XANA is in the Internet. I'm not sure if I could beat him, but I would die trying."

"Can you die?" Sean asked.

"Of course," was the prompt reply. "If XANA depletes all my energy reserves I will cease to exist. I have no means of a back-up like XANA has."

There was a long pause as ANAX considered his next words.

"I am _different _than XANA. I cannot store my files in the same manner as he. I don't know if it is even possible, and if it is, it will take a long time before I can utilize it."

I was about to reply when the sound of a loud engine starting interrupted me.

We gathered at the window to see what the noise was. Several students had already gathered in the School Yard. It appeared that Kirsten had put together another surprise.

"I've got to see this," Tennent said.

"I think that you may all leave," ANAX told us. "Little more can be said now that will be of any help."

"But I wanted to talk about how we're going to fight Hannah and the Slythers," Alyssa complained. "We need to know what happened since I wasn't on Lyoko!"

"Ah, we'll have time for that later!" Sean said. "We don't get to see this kind of stuff every day! Whatever she's built, it looks big."

So we all trooped down the many stairs to the yard. We came across at least a dozen other students heading to the same place we were. By the time we reached the yard, twice as many kids were there.

We finally got close enough to see what the new invention was. It was a small airplane! Ed Hunt, who was usually the guinea pig for Kirsten's exploits, lay in the "cockpit".

The design was fairly crude, but I didn't doubt its ability to work. The engine was already running and its wings looked fine.

To describe it more efficiently, I would call it a motorized Hang Glider. That's why Ed was lying down instead of sitting.

Kirsten examined the craft for a little longer while she waited for the rest of the kids to accumulate. Once they had, she stepped back to announce the beginning of the experiment.

"Thank you all for coming out today to see my latest invention!" She began. "This device is called 'The Experimental Airplane'!"

As I have said previously, she was no good with names.

"A chipmunk could have come up with a better name than that," Tennent muttered.

"Ed has once again volunteered to be my brave test pilot, so if you would please, clear the path for him to take off."

We all stepped back some to give him room. When he was ready, he pulled a lever that started the machine rolling forward. It quickly picked up speed and soon began to come off the ground!

He rose higher and higher, clearing the treetops just in time! Once he was free of that restriction, he jerked another lever that made him turn right.

He flew that direction for a few seconds and several gasps of amazement escaped the crowd. Never before had an invention of Kirsten's worked so well. She looked on proudly.

Ed jerked a lever and began to turn left. This is when the trouble started. With the pull of this lever, something broke off and fell to the ground below.

Hastily, he pushed the lever back, causing more parts to clatter to the ground. Gasps of fear came from the crowd now.

Several more parts fell off and Ed began to spiral to the trees. Soon he was almost falling, and he crashed into the branches. After falling through a few, he came to a rest, about five feet off the ground.

Several sighs of relief were heard.

The crowd of students gathered near the trees that held Ed and the flying contraption.

Ed quickly unstrapped himself and dropped to the ground.

"Whew!" He said. "That was nerve wracking!"

Kirsten seemed unconcerned for the safety of her test pilot. "Well this is just great," She said. "How am I going to get my plane down?"

"Let me at it!" Tizzy Hart said. She began to climb the tree.

When she reached the height at which the plane rested, she shook the branches vigorously.

"Stop!" Kirsten cried out. It was too late. The machine crashed to the ground with a loud bang.

"Oh man," She said. "Now I've got to fix the thing."

_Well that was interesting. _I thought.

* * *

><p>When we got back to the dorms, we then discussed our strategies for dealing with the monsters.<p>

"I only managed to devirtualize Hannah because she was distracted," Tennent said. "Other than that, I had a terrible time fighting her, and her lightning blasts really hurt!"

"I don't really see how we would be able to fight her one-on-one at this time," Brittany added.

"So we'll just have to stay in groups of two," Alyssa suggested.

"Well yeah," I said. "I think that's the strategy we're going to have to use for a while. I couldn't have killed the Slyther if Brittany hadn't been distracting it. And the SpikeSaurs won't be always available according to ANAX."

"So how exactly did you kill the Slyther?" Sean asked.

"Well I managed to use my Lyoko Power to jump up on it. The rest of you will probably have to climb up its back, or else jump from the vehicles," I answered.

Tennent cut in, "That probably would have been a good thing to do, Sammy: bring up our rides."

"We were all so shocked from seeing Hannah again that none of us thought of it," I told him.

I went on with my description. "The armor on their heads is almost exactly like the SpikeSaurs'. The SpikeSaurs walk on four legs though, and their armor extends straight across their 'neck'. XANA seems to have used this exact same design, except for the way that the Slythers are made. Because of their upright posture, the armor extends beyond the point that it needs to. I grabbed onto this part and started to pry the armor off. Once it was up enough I slashed it with my blades."

"My fans did almost no damage to the thing," Brittany added. "At least they distracted him, but that strategy is a little risky, especially since XANA is bound to catch on soon."

"Well!" Alyssa said. "We'll just have to make do with what we've got!"

* * *

><p>The next few days passed uneventfully. I talked with ANAX a bit more and we made a little progress on decoding Jeremy's notes. He was writing about a new monster called the "Scyphozoa." Apparently it was after Aelita for some reason, but we didn't get to decoding that reason.<p>

I wasn't going to give up the decoding until I knew what the Scyphozoa was after exactly. It seemed that since Aelita is so special, we might not have what she had, and thus we might not be seeing this monster.

Of course, we had the Keys to Lyoko; you might think XANA would be after that from us. Of course, XANA already has his set of Keys.

So one night I went to bed tired. Recently some heavy machinery had been moved to Kadic for the construction of the Student Hub. Kinds of bulldozers and other heavy lifting tools were there.

Recent technology had resulted in cyborg suits that multiplied the strength of humans by almost 6 times. These suits could do many things, and would help the Hub to go up quicker. I was surprised that Kadic could afford to hire a company which used such equipment.

I dozed off with the sound of rain beginning to tap at my window. The noise lulled me into a deep sleep.

I dreamed that I was swimming in a river. The current was very fast and I was trying to swim against it.

Part of me realized that this was a dream, so I quit struggling and simply let the river carry me away. I came upon a waterfall.

"Ah!" I screamed.

I began frantically swimming again. It was useless. I plummeted down the falls and fell for several seconds. I finally hit the water and plunged deep.

I was disoriented. I didn't know which way was up! I began to panic, thinking that I would drown. I swam towards light, but I didn't get any closer to the surface. My lungs were killing me, I had to breathe and I had to do it now!

I sucked in a deep breath and was relieved to find that my lungs worked normally. Usually, once I breathe underwater during a dream, I start to wake up. It was not the case this time.

I exhaled and bubbles flowed out of my mouth. I looked as they floated the opposite direction of the way I had been swimming.

Now that I could breathe, I had regained my sense of direction. Or so I thought. I watched the bubbles float upwards. I followed where that path would take them, and saw that it only got darker: it looked as if that was the way to deeper water.

I then looked where I had been facing and saw what looked like sunlight. It had been high noon when I fell off the water fall.

I began to swim in the direction of the bubbles. Physics don't lie.

As I swam, I exhaled again. This time, the bubbles formed into a XANA's eye! Terrified, I tried to scream.

This only resulted in more bubbles, and they floated opposite of the other bubbles.

I began to breathe heavily, and bubbles floated "up" in all directions. I couldn't handle this kind of confusion.

I panicked, closed my eyes, and swam in a random direction. Miraculously, I broke to the surface.

When I looked around I noticed that it was dead night. I heard the howl of a wolf in the distance.

I quickly swam to the dark shore and climbed out. Hearing the howl again I ran away.

I turned around a tree and began to climb a hill. When I got to the top, I saw a gut-wrenching sight.

In a purple gloom, Hannah stood with a black Spectre behind her.

"Welcome to my realm," The Spectre said.

"We hope your stay is long," said Hannah.

She raised her staff and struck me with a bolt of purple lightning. Suddenly a red XANA's eye flashed in my vision and I awoke.

I sat upright in my bed, breathing hard and soaked with sweat. Sean stood in the doorway.

"XANA is attacking!" he said.

"How do you know that?" I asked him. I was wide awake. My nightmare had jolted me completely past all grogginess.

"Dude," Sean said. "We can hear ANAX yelling at you all the way in our dorms, through a closed door."

_Epic fail, _I thought. Now I heard ANAX's voice telling us of the activated Tower.

"Well we better get moving then," I said.

We didn't waste time putting on proper clothes, I was in my PJs and Tennent and Sean wore their strange versions of sleeping gear.

We didn't want to risk going to the girls' floor, so we called Alyssa and Brittany on their phones.

* * *

><p>Alyssa's phone rang. By the third ring, Alyssa had woken up. She groggily reached for it.<p>

"This had better be good, Sammy," She said into the phone.

"It is," he replied. "XANA is attacking. Get to the Factory with Brittany."

He ended the conversation. _No time like the present, _Alyssa thought.

Soon Brittany was awakened, and the girls changed out of their nightgowns before leaving for the Factory.

They met a rather unpleasant sight in the middle of the school campus.

XANA had possessed the cyborg suits that were being used for construction! As soon as the "robots" saw the girls, they went after them.

The suits were quite fast; servomotors and spring-joints had more power than flesh and bone.

As they ran, one of the suits swung an arm at Brittany. The blow connected and she was sent flying.

"Brittany!" Alyssa called out.

"Get to the Factory!" Brittany replied. "I'll catch up with you!"

There was no time to be wasted in arguing. Alyssa headed off and met with the guys who were already waiting.

Little did they know that a XANA-possessed cyborg suit had beaten them to the Factory. It waited, concealed in the shadows, for the Warriors to get to Lyoko.

* * *

><p>"Where's Brittany?" Sean inquired.<p>

"I don't know. She told me to go on without her. XANA's possessed the special suits and he attacked us with them!"

"We need someone to go and help Brittany, don't you think?" Tennent asked.

"No need," came a breathless voice. Brittany descended the ladder down into the Lab. "Those suits followed me though, so I guess we can expect trouble."

"Right," I said. "That's sorted. We'd better get to Lyoko."

I configured the transfers. As I did so, I asked, "ANAX, how do things look? I can see a good few monsters on my screen, but that's expected. Do you think that XANA is plotting something?"

"XANA is always plotting," ANAX replied. "Seeing as he let you all escape from his troops on Earth, I sense that his goal must include having you on Lyoko. I have no idea why he would want that, nor can I see any traps from my view of Lyoko.

"The only thing to do is to go and deactivate the Tower," ANAX concluded.

"Is everyone ready?" I asked.

"I was born ready!" Tennent answered.

"The Tower is in the Mountain Sector. Let's get to it," I said grimly. I got the feeling that XANA was after something from this attack. It was nothing more than a feeling, but I was still worried.

After my friends had gotten into position, I teleported them to Lyoko: "Virtualization!"

I set up the self-virtualization process and then went to take the trip with Brittany.

* * *

><p>I dropped down, and a small cloud of purple, digital dust floated up from my impact.<p>

"I've virtualized us right near the Tower," I told my friends. "It's just around that mountain," I pointed east.

Sean activated his Lyoko Power by saying, "Super Stealth!" He vanished from our sight. It would be helpful to have an invisible ally, at least for as long as Sean could hold the ability.

I materialized our vehicles, and Sean jumped aboard the back of Tennent's OverBoard. We took off and turned the corner.

Suddenly, my LI began beeping furiously. It was responding to preset commands.

"Oh no!" I exclaimed. "The Scyphozoa!"

"The Skiphy-what?" Tennent asked.

"The Scyphozoa!" I corrected. "I can't explain now!" Already Tarantulas were firing at us.

Then we saw it. A giant jellyfish-like monster floated out from behind the Tower. Hannah stood in the middle of three Tarantulas, two Bloks, and a plethora of Hornets. No Slythers were present.

"What's that ugly thing?" Brittany asked pointing at the Scyphozoa. "That's the Scyphozoa!" I answered. "We've got to stay away from it at all costs! I have no idea why it's here!"

My friends knew better than to ask how I know about the monster. Battle was upon us, and that left no time for small-talk.

"ANAX!" Alyssa shouted. "Think we can get some backup?"

Several Ghosts and Klankers materialized near us. "I cannot send you the SpikeSaurs," ANAX said. "They are far away and already fighting more of XANA's troops."

"Charge!" Tennent cried, flying into the mass of enemies.

As I drove in, I was thankful that ANAX was on our side. I still couldn't trust him, but we would have been beaten long ago without him. We could never fight these odds.

When I reached the first Blok, I leaped off the OverBlaze and let it crash into the monster, destroying it.

I back flipped slowly as I fell to the ground, and I landed solidly. I began to aim a rocket, when ANAX shouted, "XANA has disabled the Scanners!"

I lowered my arm. "How?" I demanded.

"It appears that he used one of those suits he was possessing! You cannot get devirtualized, or you'll disappear forever!"

"Did you hear that?" I asked everyone. My voice carried clearly, amplified by the LI.

"That's all we needed," Sean's voice said from beside me. "XANA's pretty sneaky; he got us to Lyoko and then trapped us here. We'll have to be very careful."

_That's the understatement of the day, _I thought. We'd have to be careful indeed.

No words of mine can describe the battle. It was chaotic. Hot lasers flew everywhere, some blue, but most red. When it seemed as if the tide was turning, reinforcements arrived: Two MegaTanks and three Krabs.

I screamed in frustration. We weren't going to make it.

Suddenly, the Scyphozoa grabbed Sean! He had been sneaking up on one of the Krabs, and the monster must have seen his shadow. Sean became visible as soon as the squid's tentacles touched him.

"No!" Brittany cried out. She dashed away from the Blok she had been combatting and ran towards Sean. I tried to reach him as well.

Even from the distance that I was at, I saw the glow of Sean's eyes. I didn't think that it was my imagination that the light was fading from them.

Brittany reached the Scyphozoa before I did. A window had opened on my LI indicated a transfer of Information. I knew that that was very, very bad.

Three of the monsters' tentacles were poised above Sean's face, and it seemed to be pulling something out of him. I couldn't begin to guess at what though.

Sean's eyes' light had faded considerably. They had lost most of their light.

Brittany threw a spinning fan towards the tentacles that were holding Sean up. The severed easily, and Sean dropped to the ground. He didn't move.

The horrible monster retreated after this. At least that problem was dealt with.

Of course, I had almost forgotten about Hannah. She stood at the edge of the battlefield, watching everything with a grim look. We'd have to face her sometime. Or so I thought.

The battle raged on for a little while longer. Our Life Points slowly degenerated until we were dangerously low. All but two of ANAX's monsters had been wiped out, and still more of XANA's remained.

A MegaTank fired an accurate blast straight at Alyssa. The yellow wall of laser flew unerringly towards her.

"Watch out!" I yelled. It did no good. She was crouched on the ground, stunned from the blast of a Krab.

Suddenly, something I would have never expected happened. I heard a desperate cry of, "Nooooo!"

A blue cloud of static smoke erupted from my LI. It undulated unbelievable fast through the distance, and blocked the blast for Alyssa.

I was shocked. All of us were.

"Get to the Tower!" The cloud screamed. No voice came from my LI, so it was quite clear that this was ANAX.

"I will cover you! Hurry!"

A new wave of XANA's monsters arrived. I knew that there was no other option. We scrunched together and ANAX covered us like a dome.

We went as fast as we could towards the Tower. Hundreds of blasts thudded against our shield and it began to weaken.

Hannah charged us, but a bolt of electricity flew from ANAX and devirtualized her instantly. ANAX began to do this to the remaining monsters, but there was just too many of them.

We got very close to the Tower, and a MegaTank shot at ANAX. When the laser collided, our shield shattered into digital dust. "Agghh!" we heard.

"ANAX! ANAX!" I called. I got no answer.

I had lost all trace of his digital signature. He was dead.

My friends and I looked wide-eyed at each other. My head was spinning.

Not knowing what else to do, we all dashed into the Tower, mainly for refuge from the monsters.

"What just happened?" Brittany asked.

"I think ANAX is dead..." I said.

"How can that be? Why would he sacrifice himself for us?" Alyssa was starting to get teary-eyed.

"Hang on!" I said brightening suddenly. "I've got an idea!"

I couldn't waste a single second though, so I rushed up to the top of the Tower. I entered the Code: Lyoko, and the Tower was deactivated.

I had my theory that ANAX had merely lost enough energy to be able to hold himself together. XANA had not attacked his energy directly.

Of course, I didn't know this for sure, that cloud could have been ANAX's direct power, and its disappearance indicated the death of ANAX. There was only one thing to do.

I rerouted the Towers energy to where I thought ANAX's power would be. In a few moments, I saw ANAX's digital signature appear on my LI. I had done it.

* * *

><p>We sat safely in the Lab again; it was nearly 3 in the morning. We were hardly tired though; the adrenaline that pumped through us had been enough to keep us awake for the rest of the night.<p>

When ANAX had recovered, he briefly activated another Tower and possessed the suit that had been used to mess the Scanners up. ANAX managed to fix one of them up enough for it to handle materializing us. When we were back on earth, we could launch a Return to the Past to fix the Scanners completely.

Before that though, we had another matter to deal with: ANAX.

For several moments we sat in silence.

"Why would you sacrifice yourself for us?" Sean asked. He couldn't fathom the fact that a computer program had done this.

"You are Lyoko Warriors," was the simple reply. "Because of your cause to defend Lyoko, I am bound to do anything I can to aid you. I would be proud to lay down my life for you."

This brought some tears.

"I'm sorry for doubting you, ANAX," I said. We all apologized.

"You think of me too highly," ANAX said humbly. "I only hope that I can serve you to the utmost."

I breathed a sigh of relief. Not only had ANAX saved our lives, but now I could rest easy about his loyalty.

**Author's Notes: This is a pretty cool Chapter, I think. I know that this story as many twists and turns, and unexpected occurrences, but ****one thing you can be sure of: ANAX is a good guy. He never goes bad again... in fact, he was never bad at all. His coding instructs him that his loyalty is to Lyoko, just like XANA's used to, until he made his own rules. ANAX never had the experience that XANA did (We'll learn about that later in the story)** **and he will always be loyal to the Lyoko Warriors until his last. So you can be assured of this.**

**The Chapter is supposed to communicate this, ****but I just want to make sure that everyone knows that ANAX is most assuredly a good guy. Forever.**

**Thanks for reading!**


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

That night, I got working. Hard. After a few hours, the shock of ANAX dying for us had faded just enough for me to step back and look at our last experience on Lyoko.

Now that I was sure that I could trust ANAX, I could give him full access to the SuperComputer. This way, he is much more powerful on Lyoko. This was the first matter to discuss with ANAX: How powerful was he now?

"I will be able to create more monsters to aid you now," ANAX told me. "Also, I might be able to figure out a way to get monsters into Sector 5. I'm not sure how long this will take though."

"So how about that virtual shield you made for us? Will you be able to do that again?" I asked. I was in my chair, sitting in front of my computer in my dorm. I was quite comfortable.

"I'm sure that you have noticed that XANA has not materialized on Lyoko since you saw him steal the Keys from the Core."

I nodded. Another convenient thing about ANAX having full access to the SuperComputer: ANAX could look though my webcam and read my body language. Also, he had perfected voice synthesis on all computers linked to the Internet.

"This is because a massive amount of energy was discharged into XANA. It disrupted his code, and it's impossible to fix. This blast of power did not affect me; XANA took the Keys for himself."

I was starting to understand where this was going.

"When those lasers hit me on Lyoko, I didn't lose energy. It was pumping power into me. Despite my constant discharge of electric blasts, the charge disrupted my code in the same way XANA's was."

"So in short, the answer is 'no,' right?"

"That's correct," ANAX said.

I was doubtful. "Do you mean to tell me that a dozen monsters' lasers can equal the power of the Keys to Lyoko?" This was a ridiculous notion.

"No, that's not it at all," ANAX said. "XANA has already experienced the Keys before. It was the electric blast from the discharge of the Core is what did it. XANA learned to copy this frequency, and targeted me with it. Obviously, he doesn't want me to be directly on Lyoko to help you."

"So other than that, you aren't weakened in any way?" I asked.

"That's right."

"So you can activate Towers to help us fight XANA on Earth, too! This is great!"

Before I could really get started, ANAX cut me off.

"You are correct in saying that, but I don't know how long it will be until that can happen."

"Huh?" I was baffled. "But you've done stuff like that loads of times! You controlled the suits to bring us back to Earth! You've controlled many inanimate objects to attack us, under XANA's orders!"

"Exactly. Under _XANA's orders._"

I failed to see the significance. My face must have indicated this.

"I was created on the basis of XANA's core programs, you know this, right?"

He continued, "XANA was not made to activate Towers and control stuff on Earth, only to use the virtual side. He figured it out for himself. XANA gave me the codes to use that, but they were stripped away in our many battles in the Internet."

"Well that really stinks," I said. I wasn't too disappointed, for I know that ANAX would eventually figure out how to do it again, and he was still quite useful in the meantime.

"One of XANA's explicit orders was that I not read the code that I was running for those possessions. He must have plotted my betrayal since before my creation. Despite this, because of Tower protocol, I have discovered a very primitive way to do it. It was thanks to this that I possessed the suits and repaired the Scanners. However, this possession was weak, and will not likely be useful again."

"XANA is really twisted," I said.

"You wouldn't have to be a rocket scientist to figure that out," ANAX agreed.

So now that that was covered, I had other issues to deal with. Like the Scyphozoa.

I had been working hard, but I hadn't deciphered any more of Jeremy's journal. The part that I was working on was the section on the Scyphozoa. I really needed to figure out what it wanted form Aelita, it could help me write a defense program.

I proposed this idea to ANAX. He agreed instantly of course.

We worked for a little while, but by then it was _really _late, and my brain was starting to lose its edge.

ANAX assured me that he would continue to work on our project as I slept, and hopefully he should be done some time tomorrow.

I threw my sleep gear on, and fell on my bed. Seconds before I fell asleep, I noticed that snow was beginning to fall out my window.

I was conscious for only a few seconds more before the black ocean of sleep covered me.

* * *

><p>When I awoke I found that ANAX was still going full steam. A quick glance out my window proved that a good three inches of snow had fallen during the night.<p>

For now, I didn't think about the snow. I could see that ANAX had chipped away at a good bit of the encryption. It was starting to make sense, and it looked like a few more hours were all that was necessary to finish the job.

Tennent and Sean came into my room at this point.

"You see the snow?" Tennent asked excitedly.

"Yeah," I told him. "Don't get to many ideas," I warned.

"Oh for goodness' sake, Sammy! This is the perfect time for me to get Tyce back for some of those pranks!" I could tell he was going to go through with his idea whether I agreed with him or not.

"Whatever you do," I cautioned him, "leave me out of it."

"Sure thing, Einstein."

"You look awfully subdued, Sean," I said. "What's the deal?"

He looked up. Needless to say, his expression was grim.

"Do you know what the Scyphozoa was doing to me? I don't feel so good."

I thought for a second before answering. "Define: Not feeling good."

"I don't know," Sean said. "It feels like..." He paused. "For lack of a better term, it feels like that monster touched my soul. In a really creepy way."

"I have no explanation for this," ANAX intoned. We jumped a little bit, but we recovered quickly.

"My work is almost finished, and then maybe we'll be able to tell what XANA wants out of you."

"Thanks, ANAX," Sean said. He put a hand over his stomach.

"Sean, are you sure you're OK?" Tennent asked.

"No," He answered. "I _know _I'm not OK."

A few moments of silence passed.

"Well, Sean, I promise, I'll do everything I can to figure out what we can do to combat this. It might help if I can scan you sometime today and take a look at your bio schematic. It could help me figure out what the Scyphozoa did to you," I assured him.

"Thanks buddy."

* * *

><p>We met Alyssa and Brittany in the Cafeteria. While they arrived dry and warm, we had walked into an ambush. We didn't even know who it was; the snow had been dumped on us from the top of the dorm.<p>

So now, our clothes were wet, and we were very cold. It was nothing that the company of friends and some warm breakfast couldn't fix though.

This morning, we had toast and egg croissants. We also snagged some hot chocolate on the side.

Sean's mood slowly faded, and before class had started he was in good spirits.

While he and Tennent dashed off to join a snow battle, I filled Brittany and Alyssa on last night's research, and Sean's predicament.

"Oh my goodness, Sammy! This could be serious! What if there's something very wrong with Sean?" Brittany exclaimed worriedly.

"Look, he's OK now," I said. "I'm gonna run a scan on him and try to figure out what happened. I might be able to review the log on the SuperComputer and take a look at that data transfer."

"So you think everything will be alright?" Alyssa asked.

"Sure," I replied. I was worried, but I didn't show it.

"Wait a second!" Brittany cried. "_Data transfer?"_

"Right," I explained. "When the Scyphozoa captured Sean, a new window opened on my LI indicating a transfer of information. XANA was downloading _something _from Sean, but I have no idea what."

Brittany shook me by the shoulders. "How can you be so calm? What if XANA took some of Sean's DNA, or something vital? This could be deadly!"

"I'm not jumping to any conclusions," I told her. "If I allow myself to be driven out of my mind with worry, then it's not going to help anything."

If only I had remembered this throughout the rest of my life. Of course, there is no way I would keep this mentality for long.

The bell signaling the beginning of class rang. I noticed that Tyce, Sean, Tennent, and Lisa were sneaking up around the building on a group of students.

Before they could within snowball range, Sean, Tennent, and Lisa each scooped a giant handful of snow and stuffed it down Tyce's back. Tennent's clump ended up in Tyce's blond hair.

"Hey!" I heard him exclaim. In a hasty retreat, the rest of the group fled to the school building.

With a grin, I followed them more leisurely.

* * *

><p>When lunch had come and gone, and the rest of the school day finished, I headed off to the Factory to talk to ANAX.<p>

Brittany and Alyssa came with me, while Sean and Tennent stayed in the dorm. I would call them when I needed them.

As I got on my scooter, I noticed something different. I seemed to ride it with a new ease, I can't explain it. It felt like controlling it was not something that required conscious thought.

As we traversed the sewers, we came to a point where we had to jump over some water. On previous trips, I had to stop early, get a running start, and leap the gap. For some reason, I stayed on my scooter.

When I reached the jump, something overtook me. I was no longer in control. I pulled the scooter up into the air, and I slammed down on to the ground a good seven feet from the edge. I had never jumped that far on a scooter before!

I said nothing, and neither of my friends noticed it, for I was in the back of the procession.

We soon reached the ladder, ran across the bridge, slid down the metal ropes and jumped into the elevator.

I hit the down button, and I punched in the code. When we arrived at the Lab, the doors hissed open, and we walked forward into the control center.

I jumped into the chair, and Brittany stood on my left side while Alyssa stood on my right.

"ANAX?" I said putting the microphone on. "I'm here. Do you have new data for me?"

"Like you wouldn't believe!" He sounded excited. "Although I'm not sure that it will help _our_ situation."

"How could that be?" I inquired.

"Read for yourself," he replied. A window popped up. The text file opened, and I began to read. The print was large enough for Brittany and Alyssa to both read well.

_The Diary of Jeremy Belpois_

_-The __Scyphozoa_

_This section of my notes is devoted to a monster known as "The Scyphozoa." It is a giant, squid-like monster, and it usually only attacks Aelita._

_The Scyphozoa is a monster that is based on a data transfer algorithm. I believe that it is based off of a previous monster, called a "Guardian." It can do many data transfers; it can both upload and download data to humans._

_Once, it stole Yumi's DNA sequence code. We solved this problem by finding the DNA code in Sector 5._

_Also, it has possessed Aelita. This was accomplished by an upload of parasitic data. Whenever she was devirtualized, this code disappeared, since it was not part of her code. When she was materialized, she was not reformed with this added data._

_The Scyphozoa's main purpose was to steal the Keys to Lyoko stored in Aelita's memory. Later, it tried to possess her, and use her to destroy the Sectors of Lyoko._

_Eventually, the Scyphozoa stole the Keys from her. In effect, this killed her. Franz Hopper was able to revive her by copying his Keys back into her memory, and restoring that memory at the same time. Unfortunately, XANA still had the Keys, and he escaped from Lyoko._

After reading this, I let out a sigh. "A fat lot of good _that _does us!"

"What's the deal?" Brittany asked.

"XANA has already escaped from Lyoko, so he doesn't want to get the Keys from us."

"And?" Alyssa asked.

"My point is that XANA doesn't need anything from us, at least from what I've read here."

"What about him trying to destroy Lyoko? Couldn't he be trying to do that with us?" Brittany asked.

"I doubt it," I replied quickly. I brought up the log of activity, and located the window that opened when Sean was captured.

"See this?" I asked as I pointed.

They nodded.

"This is a window indicated a data transfer from Sean to the Scyphozoa; not the other way around. If he was trying to possess us, it would have been an upload from the Scyphozoa to Sean. XANA can't possess us through removing or copying data from us, he'd have to implant something in us, get it?"

After two seconds, Alyssa nodded. "Yeah, that makes sense," she said.

So there was only one thing left to do. Get Sean in here.

* * *

><p>"What do you need me to do?" Sean asked. He and Tennent were walking out of the elevator.<p>

"I need to check out your bios," I said. "I read Jeremy's notes on the Scyphozoa, and they didn't help our situation any. So I'm gonna see what I can come up with by looked at your schematic."

"Right away, chief,"

He and Tennent went promptly to the Scanners. Once they were there, he waited for me to signal him to get in. Once I did, I sent the command to close the doors and begin scanning.

As the light waves went up and down, I began receiving data on his bio schematic. I couldn't make any sense of it, but I expected that. The transfer wasn't complete, so the data was not yet useful.

"OK, Sean, I'm finished. You can come back now."

"Thanks," he replied.

Immediately I began swimming through the information. His DNA was intact perfectly, with no signs of tampering. Except for one little thing...

After some more quick searching, I brought up the data transfer again and reviewed it.

"What is going on here?" I cried out.

"What's the matter?" Tennent asked.

"I can't make out this data! This code _shouldn't _be here!"

Naturally, that made no sense to them. Suddenly I got an idea, and checked it out.

I found the part in Sean's bio about his Keys to Lyoko. Under a subset, there was code for some type of genetic mutation. I did a quick Internet search, and was surprised by what I saw.

After several more minutes, my friends drifted away. They could tell that I would be a while.

Several hours passed. I was still working out what that code meant. It was Lyoko data, so I couldn't find everything I needed on science websites. Eventually, I figured it out.

This code resulted from the Keys being put into us. It was actually a genetic mutation that caused our eyes to glow when our body became associated with Lyoko. This is caused by something that the Scanners had modified in our bodies. I didn't waste any time researching this though. I had spent long enough. That would be a project for another day.

"Hey," I said. "I need one of you guys to go down and get scanned for me. I have to check something out."

Brittany volunteered.

Soon it was done. I compared her Lyoko data with Sean, and found obvious differences. I checked and saw that they had the exact same program for the Keys, while the attributes were different.

There was only one thing to do now.

I checked the data transfer. I was suspecting it, but my blood still froze when I saw what XANA had been transferring. Or copying, to say more accurately.

The code that XANA had wanted to get matched exactly with Sean's Lyoko data.

* * *

><p>"No!" I said. I banged my fist against the chair.<p>

"What'd you find?" Brittany asked.

"You know how our eyes turn when we start thinking about Lyoko, right?"

Of course they did. Our eyes were glowing now. Usually just being in the Factory was enough to set it off.

"Well this is because of some sort of mutation we received when we got the Keys to Lyoko," I explained.

Surprised gasps met me.

"Don't worry," I said. "This isn't the bad kind of mutation. As far as I can tell, it's only helped us. This works with the Scanners in a way I don't yet understand, and it has modified our bodies. I don't have many details on that yet."

I paused for a second to gather my thoughts. "XANA was trying to transfer the code for Sean's mutation. He didn't want the Keys, of course, he already has them. I don't want to guess what XANA wants with that data!"

We didn't know it yet, but XANA's entire scheme hinged upon this data that lived in us. And in the days to come, we would have to guard it with our very lives.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

"C'mon, Smudge, move _over!" _I begged. The wretched cat was sitting directly on the book I was studying, and as soon as I would toss him off, he would land nimbly on his paws and leap right back up. He was in the mood for attention.

This book was something I had rented from the library. The book dealt specifically with building firewalls. I had been studying it to try and find a way to inhibit the Scyphozoa's ability to steal out data. ANAX and I had been making good progress when Tennent dropped Smudge off in my room.

Apparently, Tennent was going out to practice his skateboarding, because Sean wanted to peace to study. That meant Smudge had to go as well. Of course, it never occurred to Tennent that I might need some peace as well, but I didn't have the heart to dump the cat on Sean, or else have it wander the hallways.

So there I sat, trying to negotiate with a non-sentient being. ANAX remained silent throughout all this time, maybe he didn't want to spook Smudge with his electronic voice. I would have to talk to him later.

"Smudge," I said sternly. "This is last time I'm going to speak to you civilly. _Get off my book. _Lie on the bed, take a nap, do something other than pester me!" With that said, I scooped him up, and chucked him onto the bed. His reflexes took over and he landed with hardly a sound.

I don't know if it's possible, but even if it isn't, I'd swear that he threw me an indignant look. Seeming to dust himself off, he leapt daintily off the bed, and curled in a corner of the room.

"Alright ANAX, where were we?" I said getting back into programming mode.

"We were discussing the proper usage of algorithms. We seemed to have a disagreement, I say that we should use the algorithm as a back-up field, while you think that we should use it as the primary."

"Yes, that's right. What makes you say that the algorithm should be used _behind _the main code? What else do we have to build a firewall?"

"To be quite honest, I feel that the best way is to implement the wall in cells, each one having a different code. I don't know if this could work, but it would be most efficient if we could use your Lyoko data to make our own type of wall that XANA has never seen before. This is the only way that we can know for sure that you will be safe."

I stroked my face as I thought that suggestion over. I had to say, it was the best idea that I had heard in a long time. But it was as ANAX said; I had no idea if that was even possible.

I communicated these thoughts to ANAX, and he replied, "Then we'll have to make an expedition into Sector 5."

I instantly saw a problem with that. "I think that's a bit risky," I said. "I mean, I don't really know any other way to do it, but still, can't XANA monitor what data we're browsing on that interface? If he can – which is likely – then he has a good chance of guessing our strategy and breaking the code."

"That's true," ANAX intoned. "But I think that it's a risk that we'll have to take. Otherwise we have nothing."

I spent a while longer going over the book I had gotten, and found nothing that was powerful enough to withstand an Lyoko energy blast sent by XANA.

I sure wished that ANAX had more experience with firewalls, but he never had a real need of them, and the best he had ever mustered were the ones he used in his struggle with XANA, and each of those disintegrated after just one hit. We needed something far more powerful than that.

* * *

><p>Having finished studying, Sean walked out of his room. It was 5:00, so there was still a good portion of the day left. <em>Let's go see what Tennent's doing, <em>he thought.

As he walked out of the dormitory, Rachel passed him.

"Hey, Sean," She said waving. "How are you doing today?"

"That's my business."

"Well!" She sniffed. "It seems as if you're not in a talkative mood right now. Anyway, is Tennent in your room?" She asked.

"No, he's out skateboarding," Sean replied. Too late, he wondered if he should have withheld that information.

"Bye," Rachel said as she walked up the stairs.

_What was that all about? _He wondered.

* * *

><p>The next day, the Della Robbia-Belpois dorm was a flurry of activity. Sean tore from one corner of the room throwing aside random objects as he searched desperately. Smudge dodged out the way of a carelessly tossed book and spat irritably in Sean's direction.<p>

"Hey Buddy," Tennent said, "watcha looking for?"

Sean answered bluntly, "My diary."

"You keep a diary?" Tennent asked incredulously. A laugh was forming in his throat when Sean thought, _I couldn't expect anyone but Brittany to understand._

"Listen, I absolutely _have _to find that! I think Rachel might have it, and I've written about Lyoko in it!"

That sobered Tennent up. "Are there any other secrets in that diary?" Tennent asked. "Maybe about a certain gi-"

"Shut it!" Sean ordered.

"Woah, OK! Touchy subject!" Tennent exclaimed.

Time only allowed a few more minutes of searching, and it was soon clear that the book was not in the room.

"I guess we had better go to breakfast," Tennent suggested.

As they went, Sean prepared what he was going to say to Rachel.

* * *

><p>The very minute Sean and Tennent walked into the cafeteria, they heard a high-pitched voice called for them. "Sean, do you want to come and sit with me?" Rachel asked.<p>

He walked over. "Actually," he said, "I was hoping to talk to you."

"Oh, that's great!" She said. "I'm listening."

Sean sat down. As he did so, he noticed Tennent walking by with three trays balanced over him. He causally dropped off a tray in front of Sean, and sat at a nearby table.

_I guess he took Sammy's portion, _Sean thought with a grin.

"Rachel," he began, regaining his seriousness. "Would you have something that belongs to me?" After a moment of silence, he prodded, "Something you might have gotten from my room?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," She said sweetly. "But if I did have something, I'd be happy to return it."

"You would?" Sean asked.

"If you were to ... hang out ... with me for a while," she told him with a strange look.

"What!" Sean exclaimed. "That's blackmail!" He whisper-shouted. "You can't expect me to agree to that."

"Actually, I can and I do," She replied smugly.

"Well if you think I'm caving in like that, then you're wrong," he said. He then began to munch away at the French toast Tennent had dropped in front of him. He choked as he heard Rachel's next comment.

"Fine. I'm sure my father will be happy to hear about Lyoko and the Factory, and how you break the school rules all the time, going off with Brittany and your other friends."

Sean let out a long sigh.

* * *

><p>Brittany and Alyssa walked into the cafeteria. "Hey," Brittany said. "Why is Sean sitting over there with Rachel?" She sounded miffed.<p>

"I have no idea," Alyssa replied, "but he doesn't look too happy."

"Hm..." That was all Brittany said.

They walked over and took seats next to Tennent after they had gotten their food.

* * *

><p>"Y'know what?" Sean said. He didn't wait for Rachel to answer. "I'm not gonna let you push me around like this. Tell your father and see if I care! He probably won't believe you anyway!"<p>

He then got up, and marched away. Rachel let out a gasp of surprise.

Sean sat at the table where his friends were.

"What was that all about?" Brittany asked.

"Ah," Sean began. "Rachel snuck into our room while we weren't there and took my diary. I've got stuff about Lyoko and the Factory written in there, and Rachel is threating to tell her father if I don't go out with her."

"Hey," Tennent said. "You did it for Smudge, why not again?"

Sean whirled on his dorm-mate. "You know _exactly _why!" He settled down a bit. "Besides, this time, she wants me to stay with her for _weeks! _I'm not doing that!"

"Well what _are _you going to do?" Brittany asked.

"I'm going to go and see Sammy. I have a little idea..."

He jumped up and jogged away. Tennent scooted over and tucked into Sean's half-finished breakfast.

"Hey Tennent, do you never run out of room in your stomach?" Alyssa asked.

Tennent though for a while, and then answered, "Not that I know of. I think both my legs are hollow, and there's some sort of back-up system to make more room if there is a need."

A second passed, and the three started laughing.

* * *

><p>"Sammy!" Sean burst into his friend's room. "I've got a huge problem!"<p>

Sammy spun around in his swivel chair. "Woah! Slow down a bit!" Sammy pleaded.

"Sorry." He took a seat on Sammy's bed and explained his predicament in a calmer manner.

"Well what do you expect me to do?" Sammy asked.

"Well," Sean hesitated. He was having second doubts.

"Spit it out," Sammy prompted.

"You could launch a Return to the Past," Sean informed him.

Sammy though this idea over. "I can't see anything wrong with that," he began.

ANAX interrupted, "I don't think that's wise."

"Why not?" Sean inquired.

"Much time has passed since Rachel stole your book, if my understanding is correct. In my opinion, the Return would not place you far enough back in time to prevent her from stealing it again."

"Rats!" Sean said. "I hadn't thought of that!"

"He's got a point," Sammy added.

Sean sighed. "Anyway, it looks like I'll have to find another solution. Sorry for bothering you, Sammy."

"Not a problem," He answered.

* * *

><p>Throughout the next few hours, Rachel and Sean negotiated back and forth. Just after class was over, the negotiations came to an abrupt end.<p>

"I'm going to see my father!" Rachel said as she stomped off.

Rachel stormed off to her room and grabbed Sean's diary where she had it hidden. Already the lies she was going tell were forming in her mind.

When she reached her father's office in the admin building, he looked up from the paper in his hand.

"Ah, Rachel!" Mr. Sanders said welcomingly. "What do you need?"

"Daddy, I found something that I think you need to take a look at," Rachel told him.

"This book doesn't have anything on the cover, so I thought I could open it and see what was in it. I found it lying around in the school yard."

"And what did you find?" inquired the superintendent.

"Well after flipping to a random page and reading a bit, I realized that what was in it was none of my business. It is the diary of Sean Belpois. Despite that though, I read some disturbing things that I think you ought to take a look at!"

"Let me see the book, dear," he asked.

Rachel gave it to him, with her finger stuck in the page that she wanted him to read.

After a minute or so, Mr. Sanders said, "Why that is _very _disturbing! I can't believe those five would do something like _that!_"

He continued, "And I wonder what all this babble is about ANAX, XANA, and Lyoko. I will have to get to the bottom of this."

_The students' safety must come first! _He thought. _It can't be safe in that old Factory._

Just as he stood up, a wave of blindingly bright light washed over him and his daughter, and his memory was erased.

* * *

><p>Tennent opened his eyes and looked at his surroundings. It was early morning, judging by the light coming in from the window. A glance at his clock proved it to be 7:00. Breakfast was starting now!<p>

But that wasn't the issue here.

_Why was there a Return to the Past? _He thought.

Sean was right beside him. They both stood in the hallway of the dorms.

"I thought you said that Einstein wouldn't do a Return!" Tennent said, surprised. "And from the looks of things, it didn't help us any."

"He _did _say that he wasn't going to do one. I don't know why there was though," Sean said.

"Well we better go and see him then," Tennent suggested.

* * *

><p>Sean and Tennent walked into my room. I couldn't say I was surprised by their appearance, nor by Alyssa and Brittany's a few minutes later. The Return to the Past was not supposed to happen, it the information was well known within our group that we had decided against doing the Return.<p>

"So what just happened?" Alyssa asked.

"I have no idea," I replied. I gonna have to go to the Factory and check it out. Too bad for my classes today."

"Right. And in the meantime, we'll have to deal with Rachel," Sean added.

"You do that," I told him. To be honest, I had no idea what he was going to do, short of break into her room and try to find the diary. Either way, that wasn't my job right now.

I headed over to the Factory, and in a few minutes I had arrived. I sat down in the chair and began to type, opening several analysis windows and trying to figure out what happened.

Only a few seconds of searching produced an answer. "XANA!" I said in recognition. "Why am I so surprised?"

"How do you think XANA managed to take over the Return to the Past function?" I asked ANAX.

"I'm not sure," He answered. "It would seem that it serves some purpose, but I can't give much of a guess right now. I'll do some research and see what I can come up with."

A few minutes later, ANAX piped up again. "I've found it!" He proclaimed. "There is an existing program here. It was made to keep XANA out of the Return function, but he must have cracked it. The program looks like it took a beating. And I also figured out _why _XANA wants to do a lot of Returns."

ANAX's use of the term, "a lot" intrigued me. I listened intently to his explanation.

"The SuperComputer functions on the principal of 'qubites'. Every time you add a qubite, the SuperComputer's power doubles."

"Well how many Returns to the Past are in a qubite?" I asked.

"I don't really know. It has to be a very large number though, the SuperComputer's power has not doubled very much since it was created, but I'm guessing that it's getting close to another double. When it reaches a certain point, I'm sure XANA can try out a new power."

"This is bad," I said. "Very, very bad."

It soon became apparent that XANA had activated a Tower, and was using its energy to initiate the Time Reversions. We needed to deactivate the Tower fast.

* * *

><p>"Is the coast clear?" Sean asked to Tennent. They were in the hallway where the door to Rachel's room was.<p>

"It looks good. Let's move," He whispered.

The pair snuck out into the hallway and began to fiddle with the lock on Rachel's door. It was an electronic lock, and it required certain finger prints to open the door. Fortunately, they had copied one of Sammy's code cracking programs onto a chip. The inserted the memory device and it began to work.

A slow minute later, the lock clicked, indicated that the door could be opened.

When they reached for the handle they heard, "Just what do you think you're doing?"

They whipped around and found Rachel glaring at them.

"Uh-um-ug... uh?" Tennent stuttered.

"Just wait till my father hears about this! The two of you breaking into my room! And the fact that you have access to technology that can unlock the door is just as disturbing!"

She stalked into the room, slammed the door, locked it, and began to dial her phone.

"Well that worked out, James Bond. You were the one all, 'oh don't worry, we can do it'!" Sean accused.

"Hey, no one's perfect," Tennent said shrugging.

* * *

><p>Back in the Lab, I flipped through the many sub-programs controlling Returns to the Past. Looking at the screen, I saw that it wasn't going to be long before another Return started up.<p>

There was nothing I could do, and in just a few minutes, another wave of white light covered the planet.

When I could see again, I jumped into action. We needed to get to Lyoko and fast! If we could deactivate the Tower, then we could solve the problem, at least temporarily.

I called Tennent, and told him to go to the Factory, and then I called Sean.

"No way," he protested. "I've got to get my diary back!"

"Forget it," I told him. "We _need _you on Lyoko! You're one of the best fighters."

I hung up, giving him no further chance to argue. We still needed to move quickly.

After calling Alyssa and Brittany, I headed over to the Factory myself. We got lucky, and Jim didn't spot us.

When we had assembled, I gave my friends as much information as I could.

"Alright then, what are we waiting for?" Tennent asked.

So the four of them went down to the Scanners while I started the virtualization. "The Tower is in the Ice Sector," I told them. "Get ready for some cold shoulder."

First I virtualized Sean and Tennent, and then Brittany and Alyssa. I decided to stay in the Lab.

When my friends asked why, I answered, "I want to know how XANA managed to break past the defense program Jeremy put in place. To do that, it's best if I can watch the screen and not have to fight at the same time."

"Alright," Brittany said, "but I hope that things go easier over here."

* * *

><p>Sean surveyed the cold, barren landscape in front of him. There were no monsters in sight, but that usually just meant an ambush was waiting.<p>

"Can you bring up our vehicles?" He asked.

"Sorry," Sammy replied. "I don't have the machine resources to bring them up. XANA's control is too taxing on the SuperComputer."

"Great," Tennent said. "Now we're easier prey!"

"Hey, don't blame me," Sammy inserted. "It's XANA's fault!"

"Well we're wasting time," Brittany said. "Let's go."

"Super Stealth!" Sean said. He disappeared from view when he activated his Lyoko Power. He skirted off to the east side, behind a giant protrusion of ice. Behind him, he saw a vast expanse of water, not the Digital Sea, but normal water. Ahead of him lay a large open space, and over a small ridge lay the Tower. This might not be too hard.

He followed as close to his friends as he could manage, trying to stay hidden.

Suddenly, Sammy called out, "Watch out, XANA's sending you two Slythers!"

Sure enough, in just a few seconds, the Slythers materialized right on top of the Lyoko Warriors. There was a bright flash of purple lightning and Hannah stepped out of the blaze. The purple flames died quickly.

"You call this a fair fight?" Tennent asked in outrage.

Sean remembered back to one of Jim's teachings. _What's the difference between a fair fight, and a dirty fight? _Sean grinned. _That's right, _Jim would say. _Absolutely nothing._

Tennent, Alyssa, and Brittany were now running the opposite direction, but Sean continued in the same direction. Soon, he ended up behind one of the Slythers.

"ANAX!" Alyssa called out. "We wouldn't mind some help here!"

The A.I. didn't respond verbally, but two Swoopers and two Disks appeared.

"Be careful, guys," Sammy warned. "We really need this tower deactivated."

From Sean's vantage point, he saw Tennent leap into the air and fire a Laser Arrow at the Slyther that Sean was not behind. He was accompanied by several blue lasers fired from ANAX's monsters.

All of the projectiles impacted, but the beast hardly reacted. It snatched Tennent out of the air, and chucked him so far back that he landed in the water behind them. Sean didn't see him resurface.

He deactivated his Lyoko power and charged the Slyther from behind. It was a coward's move, but at this stage it was not about honor.

Sean clambered up to the monsters head and began to pull its armor off. The Slyther screeched in agony and it swung around, trying to throw him off.

A blast of purple energy collided with Sean, making him fall off the monster. "Oh, come on, Sean," Hannah said. "How could I not have known that you were there the whole time?"

She gave an evil laugh as she stalked towards Sean's fallen form. He struggled to his feet. Hannah's electricity had some sort of effect that sucked his energy from him.

"Be careful, Sean!" Sammy exclaimed. "You just lost 30 Life Points!"

Sean brandished his whip, and slung it around Hannah's wrist. He gave a jerk, but Hannah jerked back, and she proved stronger.

Sean was flung into the air, but before he had landed, Alyssa rolled into the scene and fired an Energy Field at Hannah.

_Yeah! _He thought. Then he crashed to the ground. He got up as quickly as he could, but as soon as his vision cleared, he saw a dark red Slyther towering over him. It had just finished wiping out the Disks. The Swoopers had disappeared. Had they been killed so quickly?

It lunged for him with its massive jaws, but he rolled to the side at the last second. It then brought its first crashing to the ground where Sean had been a millisecond ago.

Try as he might, Sean couldn't gain any ground on the monster. At least it was occupied though.

* * *

><p>Brittany rushed in to help Alyssa battle Hannah. She aimed a fan and threw it precisely. In an amazing display of reflexes, Hannah jumped into the air, caught the fan, and threw it back at Brittany.<p>

Too surprised to do anything, the fan sliced into her. Sammy reported that she had lost 20 Life Points.

Brittany and Alyssa now advanced together, unaware that the other Slyther was creeping up behind them.

* * *

><p>Tennent crawled out of the frigid water. A lot had happened since he went under. Sean was struggling with a Slyther, and Brittany and Alyssa were battling Hannah. That was an explosive corner of battle.<p>

Tennent saw the Slyther that had thrown him advancing on Alyssa and Brittany.

"Good," Tennent muttered. "Maybe now I can get revenge!"

He charged up, running like a cat. He jumped onto a nearby iceberg, and using his Lyoko Power, ran on the side of it. When he was in range, he jumped the Slyther, landing precisely on its face.

He dug his claws into the soft part just behind the armor and began to yank it off.

He didn't have to pull it far in order to fire an Arrow and blow up the monster. The explosion flung him away for the second time. This time, though, it was in the right direction.

He landed solidly, and advanced upon Hannah, making it three against one. In an instant, she whirled and fired a bolt of electricity at Tennent from her staff. That was enough to devirtualize him. Back to two on one.

* * *

><p>Alyssa dodged a bolt of energy, and then she dodged Hannah's swinging staff. She ducked, but Hannah anticipated the move, and smacked her with the staff.<p>

"C'mon guys!" Sammy urged. "You guys are getting beaten really badly!"

"I'd love to see you down here, Einstein!" Sean yelled. "The monsters seem more powerful than usual!"

"Anyway, you're running out of time! Another Return is starting!"

Alyssa was devirtualized by Hannah, and then a Time Reversion occurred, and we lost all our progress.

* * *

><p>When my consciousness returned, I was not what you could call ready for action. I had precious little new information on XANA's plot. I had examined the break in of the Return to the Past function and found that he had used some sort of new program to punch through. My research on the Scyphozoa would have to be put on hold after we got out of this mess.<p>

Unbeknownst to me the activated Tower had changed functions. It now controlled a dark, smoke-like Spectre of XANA's control.

The Spectre located Rachel and instantly enveloped her. She dropped to the floor and writhed as the foreign program wrested the control of her body from her.

When she rose again, the eye of XANA had replaced her pupils.

* * *

><p>As I assumed, I found my friends all at the Factory. All but one.<p>

"Nice guys," I said. "It looks like we're getting the hang of-" I paused.

"Where's Sean?" I asked.

"No idea," Brittany told me. "You'd think he would get right over here."

"We'll have to do without him," Tennent said.

"That's fine," I said, "but I'll have to say at the computer again. I think I might have an idea..."

* * *

><p>Sean at this moment was slinking through the dorms. He found Rachel's door unlocked and the room empty. It only took five minutes of searching for him to locate his diary and leave the room.<p>

He headed to the Factory, now that his other business was taken care of.

* * *

><p>Brittany felt the feeling of being virtualized. It felt as if she was made of ice, and slowly melted.<p>

When she was fully on Lyoko, she looked up at the icy landscape. The Tower stood menacingly a few hundred yards in front of them.

"Alright, get going!" Sammy said. "I'm gonna do some research on the Returns."

Brittany followed Alyssa and Tennent as they ran in the Tower's direction. Monsters shortly emerged, two Tarantulas and a few Kankrelats.

"Wow," Tennent said. "It looks like XANA isn't quite up to snuff today!" He leaped into the air and blasted a Kankrelat. "Laser Arrow!"

Brittany continued running and jumped over the leading Tarantula and landed behind him. She launched her fans behind her and they flew to their target unerringly.

One violent explosion later, the Tarantula was gone.

"You're right," She answered to Tennent. "It's been a while since we've had a fight this easy!"

"Let's not get overconfident, though," Alyssa put in. "XANA could have a surprise waiting for us, you never know."

* * *

><p>Sean jumped down the manhole into the sewers, grabbed his board, and was off. Soon, he saw someone in the distance. Upon closer inspection, he realized that it was Rachel, running full speed to the Factory!<p>

"Hey!" He yelled.

Alerted, she turned her head and saw him coming. With that action, Sean saw her eyes.

"Woah!" He exclaimed as he brought his skateboard to a screeching halt.

Breathing heavily, he stared at the girl two feet in front of him. With a dark grin, she dropped to the ground and kicked Sean's legs out from under him.

Since he was on wheels, he collapsed. When Rachel loomed over him, he rolled to the side and took off running in the opposite direction. She gave chase and immediately began to gain ground.

Sean dialed his phone and contacted Sammy.

"Where are you?" Sammy asked sounding annoyed.

"I'm in the sewers!" Sean shouted back. "Rachel's been possessed by XANA and she's after me! You've got to deactivate the Tower!"

At that moment, Rachel tackled Sean. His diary flew from his left hand and landed on the ground, while the rest of his body fell into the sewer water.

The connection cut off when his phone went under.

_Drat! _He thought.

* * *

><p>"Guys!" I shouted into my microphone.<p>

"You don't have to yell," Tennent said. "We can hear you just fine."

"Whatever," I replied. "Rachel has been possessed by XANA and she's attacking Sean!"

"What?" All three of my friends echoed the same bewildered response.

I typed for a few seconds on my keyboard, and soon I found something.

"And I think I know how he did it," I told them.

"Well that's great, Einstein," Alyssa said. "'Cause we were just about to ask if you knew!"

"I'll have to explain later. I don't understand all of it, and you need to focus on your fight, not my explanation." I said. "Hurry up and deactivate that Tower!"

* * *

><p>After listening to the latest development, Tennent jumped back into action. There were only a few Kankrelats left, and they quickly fell to the skill of the three friends.<p>

The proceeded with caution, not knowing what might be waiting. Surprisingly, the found the way clear, and Brittany entered the Tower.

* * *

><p>Rachel jumped into the water after Sean, and they began to wrestle. Due to Rachel's XANA-fied advantage, Sean quickly began to drown.<p>

He fought as hard as he could, but nothing could match the electricity reinforced joints. He broke the surface for a brief second, and he clawed for land.

When his hand closed on the ground, Rachel grabbed his legs and began to pull down. He gave a vicious kick and dislodged her. He hauled himself up and began to run away.

Rachel pursued him and soon Sean was backed into a corner. When Rachel raised her fist, suddenly her shoulders slumped and her head dropped into her hands.

When she raised her head again, her eyes were normal.

"What am I doing here?" Rachel asked.

Sean breathed a sigh of relief.

* * *

><p>With the diary secured, Rachel had no leverage. She couldn't find it, and she couldn't prove what was written in it, so she dropped the argument.<p>

Of course, Sean had to escort her back to school, and tell her that she was in a sort of sleep-walking state. She believed him, but was real skeptical.

_I guess she only believes me because there isn't another explanation that she can think of, _Sean thought.

* * *

><p>After school was over, I called a meeting in my dorm. ANAX and I had made some interesting discoveries, and we needed to inform the rest of the Warriors.<p>

"So how did XANA manage to possess Rachel?" Sean asked upfront.

"Well, good afternoon to you too," I said.

"Whatever."

"So here's the rundown. Returns to the Past increase the power of the SuperComputer. You see, the Computer functions on something called 'Qubites.' Every time you add a Qubite, its power doubles."

"So the more powerful the SuperComputer is, the more powerful XANA is, because the Towers draw power from the SuperComputer, right?" Brittany guessed. She picked up things quick.

"Exactly," I said.

"Hang on," Tennent said. "Shouldn't the SuperComputer be infinitely powerful by now? We've done a good few Returns, so how many times has it doubled?"

"Hold on there," ANAX interjected. "You are making an uniformed assumption. You must ask yourself how many Returns add a Qubite."

"OK," Tennent said. "He's got a point. How many Returns make a Qubite?"

"I don't know," I answered honestly. Before everyone could get too worked up, ANAX put in, "We don't know the exact number, but somewhere around a thousand per Qubite is a fairly close guess. In any case, it's a large number."

"But we still have to be careful though. Even though it looks like we just hit the number for the power to double, we can only use the Return to the Past in an emergency. We don't know what might happen." I said.

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Alyssa said.

"It's gonna be a lot tougher from now on," I said.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

The next day I already had my plans. After getting ready for the day, I met my friends in the cafeteria.

"Whew!" Alyssa said as she sat down. "That many Returns to the Past are really disorienting!"

Brittany agreed with a nod of her head.

"Well today we're going to make sure that it doesn't happen again," I said to her. "I've figured out Jeremy's program for defense, and we need to go to Sector 5 to pump some more energy into it."

"What?" Tennent asked. "Now?"

"No, not now," I amended. "After school today. Maybe around 4:30. Does that sound good?"

"We've got that big geography test coming up," Sean said. "I think we should wait until around five, to give us some time to study."

I saw all the others (except for Tennent) nodding in agreement.

"So we'll meet at the Factory at 5:00 then," I said. I gave Tennent a look and said, "If I were you, I'd use that time to study some."

He didn't bother to even look up from his mountain of food.

* * *

><p>As I walked into geography class, I placed my books on the desk and sat down with Freddy Snow. He nodded at me in greeting, and I returned it.<p>

Mr. Davis walked into the room, his black hair slightly askew. At that moment, I felt a spitball hit the back of my head.

I jerked around, and found none other than Tyce sitting right there with a big smile of victory. I didn't give him the satisfaction of a reaction, and simply wiped my head dry.

Mr. Davis tightened his jacket and called out, "Settle down, everyone. It's time to begin, turn your books to page 113."

As everyone got themselves ready, he pulled down the giant map of the world. He extended his pointing stick, and slapped it right onto Italy, his accuracy coming from many years of practice.

"Italy," he began. "has been the object of our study these past few weeks. As you all know, the test is _this Friday. _So you have just two more days to study."

He surveyed the room. "Can anyone-" I raised my hand, and he changed his sentence, "_Other _than Belpois," my hand fell. "Tell me how far it is from Paris to Rome?"

The room was dead silent. "Tennent! How far is it from our home of Paris to Rome?" demanded Mr. Davis.

He looked up with a guilty expression. He stayed silent.

"Anyone?" Mr. Davis inquired.

"Very well," he went on after a moment. "Sammy, you may help your comrade out."

"Approximately 1400 kilometers," I replied promptly, earning me a satisfied smile from my instructor.

"Very good, Belpois," he said. "As for the rest of you, I do hope you do better than this on the test."

The rest of the lesson went by quickly. Mr. Davis reviewed the main points that we had been studying, and when the bell rang, he dismissed us.

After this, the rest of the day passed without an incident worth recounting. Sean had his usual encounter with Rachel at lunch, and Tennent sent her a way with a funny joke. Funny, that is, from our perspective.

After school, I headed to my dorm to do some quick studying, and with some questions, I discovered that ANAX was really up on his geography. Later I found out he was just using Google to get his information. Considering the nature of his being, I wouldn't exactly call that cheating.

Since I finished my work long before the rendezvous time (about 45 minutes) I pinned down the exact process I needed to take on the Interface in the Celestial Dome.

"So, ANAX," I started. "I think we can divert power from the data cells surrounding Sector 5. Do you think that's a good idea?"

"One millisecond please. I believe the idea will work, but I think that's too obvious of a power source. XANA would be able to easily divert it back."

"That's true," I said, "but what other option do we have? Other sources can't spare any power, though the data cells are just spare processing power."

"Well a self-encrypting system would be to take a small amount of power from many sources. This would take longer, and thus be harder for your friends to defend you, but because of the many sources, it would be automatically encrypted. XANA might not be able to decipher it."

"But at the same time, XANA could just focus all his resources on breaking it. It might take him a few extra weeks, but if XANA wants something done, it usually gets done," I said.

"But those extra few weeks might give us time to detect XANA's activity, and then we can do something about it," ANAX informed me.

"Alright, point for you," I said. "We might not be able to hold out that long against the Mantas. Just in case, I open the process for my first idea, but keep it on hold. That way it can be launched with the push of a button, and Brittany or Alyssa could do it if I get devirtualized. Then we can work on more reinforcement later."

"Sounds like a good plan to me," ANAX said decisively.

* * *

><p>When 5:00 came, I was at the Factory. I was happy to find that all my friends arrived shortly, and we began with no delay.<p>

"Alright, guys," I said into the microphone. I've selected the Mountain Sector for our journey. Well make way to Sector 5 and we should be there quickly."

I transferred them, and then virtualized myself. I landed with a cloud of purple dust, and looked around.

"Oh, man..." I said. In the time it had taken me to virtualize myself, XANA had laid out an entire platoon of monsters, with the Scyphozoa at the center of it.

Two Slythers sat on the left and right flanks, four Tarantulas surrounded each of them. Several Bloks stood in the middle, and Hornets flew above them.

"Congrats, Sammy," Tennent said. "You just virtualized us right into XANA's ugly jaws."

I ignored him. "ANAX," I said loudly. "It looks like we're going to need some help!"

"Already on it," He replied. From the distance, Sky, Shadow and Vine thundered in. I saw several shapes materializing above us. I didn't have time to see what they were, for the area around us exploded with action.

"Stay away from the Scyphozoa!" I warned. "We don't want to find out what he wants from us!"

"We know, we know!" Sean said. "Just survive so we can get you to Sector 5!"

All conversation was cut off at this point. The combat became too heavy to communicate by any other means but gestures.

I leaped on top of a Blok, and was immediately shot off and collapsed. I rolled to the side to avoid being swamped with lasers.

I jumped to my feet and charged the Blok. My claws slid out, and I disposed of the Blok with a quick plunge.

A Tarantula (One of eight) tackled me. It roared in my face as it loomed over me. Between that sound and the blasting lasers I couldn't hear anything. I was greatly impressed to cower in fear, but the Lyoko part of me took over, and I slipped away. A barrage of blue lasers collided with XANA's monster and it exploded.

"Woah!" I exclaimed. Combat had gotten really vicious on Lyoko.

* * *

><p>Tennent charged through mass of fighting with two Klankers at his side. He fired at a Hornet and missed, but the left Klanker fired several shots, and one impacted.<p>

"Yeah!" He congratulated the monster. He went into a dive-roll and emerged under a Tarantula. He immediately blasted it, and it screamed as it died.

Tennent charged into the thickest of the ANAX-XANA fighting. He was caught unawares and the Scyphozoa grabbed him.

"Aaugh!" He cried out.

The two Klankers opened fire on the Scyphozoa in an attempt to free Tennent. However, the squid raised its newly added "tentacles" and deflected the bolts. The rest of its arms held Tennent.

A blank look came over Tennent as the data transfer took over his body processes.

In the heat of battle, no human noticed Tennent's predicament until much later.

Sean saw his buddy, and leaped off the back of the Slyther he was fighting. It swiped at him as he jumped away but missed. Sean slung his sword at the Scyphozoa, but it caught it out of the air and flicked it back at him. The sword sliced into Sean and devirtualized him.

By this point, Alyssa noticed Tennent hanging in the Scyphozoa's grasp, and Sammy had seen the info on his LI.

Alyssa quickly dealt with Tennent's situation, and the Scyphozoa retreated.

There were still the rest of the monsters to deal with though...

* * *

><p>"Nice work, Alyssa," I said.<p>

"Thanks," she replied.

Through a brief but violent firefight, we cleared the way to the edge of the Sector. I punched in the code, Scipio, and we left ANAX to fight the rest of XANA's forces.

The totals for our Life Points were as follows:

Brittany: 50, Tennent: 30, Alyssa: 75, Me: 50, Sean: 0.

It was going to be a tough Sector 5 fight with our Points so low.

When the Orb touched down, Tennent clutched his stomach.

"Oog," he complained. "I think I'm gonna be sick."

"Must be that Della Robbia gene of yours." I commented.

"Oh, ha ha," He looked at me rudely.

"Anyway," Brittany said crisply. "We'd best be going."

When the wall opened up we proceeded forward.

"Remember," ANAX said. "I can't help you here. You're on your own."

I sighed. _Why does this have to be so hard? _I thought.

When we charged into the open clearing, we found a dozen Creepers waiting for us. It seemed like XANA wasn't in the mood of making us solve puzzles, rather he was in the mood of making us bash our way through impossible odds.

"Here we go!" Alyssa said as she jumped into the midst of them.

The Creepers began to fire from their mouths at us, and we dodged the bolts as best we could.

"Forget the monsters!" I said. "We've got a mission."

That thought lasted for about twenty seconds, and then Hannah walked onto the scene. Purple shadow formed around her, and then converged into her hand with a flash. With her staff, she was ready for battle.

I lifted my hand to strike a Creeper, but it reacted too quickly for me. It turned around and lashed out its' tail and knocked my feet out from under me.

Before I realized what had happened, Hannah was standing over me. "It's all over for you!" she said as she brought her weapon down.

I jerked as the knife-like prongs of her staff ate away at my Digital Envelope, but it was over soon. When I regained my wits, I was lying in a Scanner.

I didn't expect to find Sean waiting for me.

"What happened out there?" He asked.

"Hannah happened."

* * *

><p>When we had climbed the ladder, I found that much had happened on Lyoko. Hannah was defeated, and only a few Creepers remained.<p>

"Hey guys," I said. "How'd you get rid of Hannah?"

"A story for another time!" Alyssa said. She sounded strained.

"Should we abort the mission?" Tennent asked. "Without you, we can't get what we wanted from Sector 5!"

I thought this over as they continued to combat the Creepers.

Tennent jumped off a wall and landed on one's head. Another fired at him, and he leaped off, letting one Creeper destroy another. Alyssa fired an Energy Field at one of the last two, and Brittany's fans made short work of the final monster.

"I think you should go ahead with the mission," I said. "Brittany, I can tell you what you need to do on the Interface."

"Are you sure about that?" She asked.

"I'm sure. Originally I was going to go for a more complicated scheme, but I also have a simple one in mind. I'm sure that you can handle it."

"If you say so..."

They all seemed pretty shook up. I wondered what happened in the time I was away.

They soon reached the elevator, and then the Celestial Dome. I first brought up vehicles for all my friends, and then Brittany accessed the Interface. I dictated to her pixel by pixel what to do. That is, I told her exactly which buttons to press, though she had no idea what those buttons did.

I was surprised that after almost five minutes, no Mantas had showed up. It seemed like XANA was out of monsters for today.

Brittany soon finished up, and I brought them all home. It was somewhat victorious, but I had no idea what was going on at this very moment, and why XANA had allowed us to get that data.

* * *

><p>XANA slunk through the Digital Sea. He was careful not to trip any defense programs on some of the humans' URLs.<p>

As he went, he thought to himself, "I can't believe the Humans think that they can stop me with a mere program! I have no intentions of taking over Returns to the Past again. My _true _purpose could not be grasped by them."

His hunt continued for several hours, and he didn't find what he was looking for.

"How could something that powerful just disappear?" He raged. "It survived for a millennium in that blasted war, and now there's no trace of it?"

XANA lashed out with a digital fist and shattered a firewall. Alarms sounded, and he quickly disappeared.

"That just about ends my search today," he thought to himself.

As he made his way back to Lyoko, he fumed. "I survived _my _first defeat! He was much more powerful. How could he not have survived?"

This was a mystery that would take almost seven years to solve. And XANA hated every second of it.

**Author's Notes: What is XANA looking for? The answer to this question explains XANA's every motive, throughout all of Code Lyoko, including this series. It will be a while yet before we have the answer to this question... if fact, you'll be waiting until Book 3!**


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

The next morning I woke up to the blaring sound of my alarm. I waved my hand at it and the motion sensor cut it off. I rolled out of bed.

After I had rubbed the sleep out of my eyes, I checked my computer for the finished calculations that I had begun last night.

"Good morning, Sammy," ANAX greeted me. "You'll be pleased to know that the modifications took place, and the defense program is running to proper capacity."

"Thanks, ANAX," I said, my voice still a little groggy. "Now I can get back on the Scyphozoa defense program."

"While you are in school, I will begin to work on that. I'll see what I can come up with."

I thanked ANAX again, and got dressed. Shortly, I exited the room to meet Tennent and Sean in the bathroom.

"I had this really weird dream last night," Tennent was telling Sean. Smudge circled his feet as the tale unfolded.

"I was in this giant dessert with nothing but a sword. I didn't have any food, so I was real scared."

"Knowing you," Sean told him, "that doesn't surprise me."

At this point, they realized that I was there.

"Wassup?" Sean asked.

"The defense program is up and running. Now XANA shouldn't be able to take over Returns to the Past again," I answered.

"That's good to hear," Tennent said. "So now let me tell you the rest of my dream..."

* * *

><p>I walked into the cafeteria with my friends and was surprised to find the television on. All the teachers that were there intently watched the news report.<p>

For this reason, I focused my attention on the screen as well. Tennent and Sean moved into the line, not fazed by the uncommon event.

The news lady glanced at her papers. She began, "As you all know, there was a breach in our nation's security last night. We now have the details on this incident."

I was really interested now.

"At 1:34:52 AM this morning, a firewall was destroyed. This firewall protects the programs used to control all of France's major weapons system. It appears that no information was tampered with or stolen, so it is possible that we are dealing with a highly advanced terrorist threat."

I gasped as I heard this information.

"The technical information is as follows. At the given time, a kind of digital energy impacted at a single point on the firewall. We have almost no trace left of this blast, but have deduced that it is very powerful. In that one point of contact, it shattered France's most advanced computer security system. Experts say that they have never seen anything like this type of digital energy before."

She scanned through her papers before continuing.

"The government and military are on high alert, and the investigation continues to see if anything was tampered with. Have a good day," she closed. The weather report now showed.

As the circle of teachers broke into several murmured conversations, I turned found Tennent.

"You can have my portion," I said. "I've got to check something out."

"Coo-ol!" He said.

I took off to get to my room. On the way back, I bumped into Brittany and Alyssa. I kept going.

"Hey!" Brittany shouted.

"Talk later!" I yelled back.

I jumped up the stairs, taking two at a time.

When I got to my room, I burst out, "ANAX! We've got a problem!"

"I know."

"So what are we going to do about it?" I assumed that he had seen the news report via the Internet on my computer.

"There's not much we _can _do," he told me.

"But we might be able to check it out," I protested. "This could be serious! Maybe you could program them a better firewall!"

A digital sigh echoed through the room. "Sammy," ANAX said a bit impatiently. "Use your head. If we went in to investigate, it'd be easy to get into the system; the firewall is down. But at the same time, that would mean that anyone would know that we had been there. _That _would cause even more of an uproar, seeing two "attacks" in one 24 hour period."

I was about to suggest that ANAX could cover our tracks, but he interrupted me. "And on top of that, I am only familiar with Lyoko firewalls. Your planet hasn't seen anything like that yet, and we don't know what that information could do to the system."

I dropped my point. "Ok, ok," I said. "But even still, isn't there _something _we can do?"

"There is absolutely nothing we can do, considering who is behind the attack," he said.

"But we don't know who was behind the attack," I protested.

"Well I do," he answered. "After reviewing the full report given on the military's website, I recognized a coding pattern. A digital signature; it was XANA's."

I gasped. "Are you sure?" I demanded.

"Of course I'm sure," he responded. "I'm an AI."

I ignored this. This was ANAX's sense of "humor."

"So do you think XANA was after something?" I asked.

"No, I don't know what happened. I don't know why XANA was in the Internet in the first place. Since I can recognize his digital signature from the blast, I'm sure that it was unintentional. And even if it was on purpose, then he didn't want any information, because of the nature of the destruction of the firewall."

"I'm confused," I said. "How is the nature of the destruction relevant?"

"The pattern left was essentially a shockwave. XANA's programs don't work like that. He was obviously directly in the Digital Sea when he swung a fist and dismantled the wall. If he went inside to steal info, a trace would have been left, and no marks were made on the programs themselves, simply the firewall."

"So you're sure that we have nothing to worry about?"

"Well... about 98 percent. Given time, the situation will die down, and we'll know if XANA meant to do what he did or not."

"But that still makes you wonder," I said. "If XANA didn't want the weapons programs, then what was he doing in the Digital Sea at all?"

* * *

><p>"Let's move, let's move!" Jim shouted. I ran as fast as I could, but Tyce maintained his crushing lead over me. I gave an enormous effort and sprinted like I never had before and closed the gap.<p>

It was too late though, Tyce crossed the finish line, and 10 to 20 seconds later, I collapsed over the line as well.

"Nice run, Bowers," Jim said. Then he turned to me. "Belpois!" he yelled. "How many times have I told you that you don't get better at running by sitting in a chair all day?"

It was now that I wished I had stayed in my dorm to work on my Scyphozoa defense program.

"Alright, on your feet," Jim said. "Next exercise! Moving on to the... obstacle course!"

Every student on the track let out a groan. We all knew that Jim's "obstacle course" was _made _to torture kids. The fastest time anyone had completed the sprint version of it was twenty minutes. Only a select few had every finished the entirety of it in one gym class.

The track was marked out with signs, this way Jim didn't have to tell us where to go, and he got to "flex our navigation skills." What fun.

The course started at the base of a large tree in the woods. Several ropes hung down the trunk, and the first step in the course was climb to the top. Once you made it to the top, you then had to brave a rope system to make it to another tree. From there, you had to manually climb down the tree and onto solid ground to begin the next part of the course.

Then there was a quarter mile run uphill, and then you had to crawl down the hill under wires. This was as far as I'd ever made it.

I heard stories about a wall to climb, a target to hit, and even something about swimming, though I doubted the validity of this statement. I couldn't say I was terribly interested in finding out what lay beyond the downhill crawl.

* * *

><p>By the end of class, even Tennent and Sean were sweating. They hadn't finished the course and neither had I.<p>

Luckily, today, Gym was the last class of the day. Jim usually waited for an occasion as such to put us through his ordeal. For that we were grateful.

So after we hit the showers and got cleaned up, I called a meeting in my dorm to explain the events of the morning.

"Last night a highly sensitive government firewall was destroyed. There was a news report about it, and whole country is in an uproar," I began.

"ANAX checked it out, and assures me that it was XANA how caused the disturbance, and he is quite sure that it was unintentional. So we know XANA is doing something on the Internet, but we have no idea what and we need to be real careful."

"What do you think it could be?" Alyssa asked. "I have no idea. I'd be expecting an activated Tower soon though," I warned them.

"Well that's just great," Tennent said.

And about four days later, a Tower _was _activated. But not for the reasons I thought it would be.

* * *

><p>When XANA activated his Tower in the Desert Sector, he immediately sent his Spectre out. He chose an outlet from one of the main buildings and the Spectre nabbed the first victim in reach: Jim Morales III...<p>

Meanwhile, I was lounging in my room, studying the Scyphozoa's information. It was very complicated.

For some reason, this new Scyphozoa was much more advanced than the one Jeremy and his friends encountered. This one had more tentacles, and it could use those to actually fight. In addition to this, the data transfer took place at a greater rate, as well as having a higher defense program.

My research was cut short when ANAX interrupted my work by saying, "Sammy, I think we may have a problem."

"What kind of problem?" I asked absently.

"The XANA kind."

At that moment, Jim burst into my room. He didn't even notice, it seemed, that the door was locked. He simply ripped it off its hinges.

I gulped.

* * *

><p>The fight that followed was pathetic and short. I struggled against the XANA-fied Jim, but he outclassed by on every front. Strength, speed, and wits.<p>

I was soon knocked unconscious. The next thing I remembered was waking up in the Forest Sector of Lyoko. _Not cool, _I thought.

I didn't know what was happening, but I knew what had to be done.

I dialed Alyssa's number on my LI and sent the call. She answered promptly.

"Hey, Sammy," She said. "Where are you?"

"I'm on Lyoko."

"What!"

"Get to the Factory! Something-" the communication was cut off. Jim was still in the Lab, and he had closed the program.

Still, it seemed as if Alyssa would pick up that something was wrong. So I hoped.

I located the active Tower on my LI and found that it was in another Sector entirely. Thinking that I had nothing to lose, I set off for a Way-Tower.

I hadn't gone ten feet when I heard a terrible screeching behind me. I looked over my shoulder to see the Scyphozoa, flanked by a Slyther and a Tarantula.

Without a second though, I began to sprint away. But XANA, being the evil devil that he was, already had a plan.

* * *

><p>Alyssa and Brittany were hanging out in the Rec Room when Alyssa received Sammy's call.<p>

Brittany turned the volume down on the TV and asked, "What did he want?"

"He's on Lyoko!" Alyssa exclaimed.

"Why? Is there an active Tower?"

"I guess so, his message was cut off."

"We had better round Sean and Tennent and get to the Factory, then," Brittany suggested.

"You said it," Alyssa agreed.

They soon did so and reached the Factory in about ten minutes. They jumped off the edge and grabbed the wires hanging from the ceiling to ease their fall.

As they did so, the elevator door hissed open and Jim walked out. XANA's mark was clearly visible in his eyes.

"Oh, lookie here," Tennent exclaimed. "Looks like XANA's found a new puppet."

Sean turned to Alyssa and Brittany. "You get down to the Lab, we'll handle Jim," he said. They nodded and ran off to the stairs.

A bolt of purple lightning exploded from Jim's outstretched hand, but Sean managed to dodge in time. Jim let out a cry of frustration.

He ran forward and swung his fist, but Sean dodged this as well.

"Looks like you're not all that powerful, XANA!" Sean taunted as he leaped on Jim's back.

A quick snap of the XANA-fied body was all it took to send Sean flying. He landed with a thud and didn't get back up.

Jim stood over the fallen body with a victorious grin on his face. He turned quickly and slammed his fist into Tennent as he approached.

"All too easy," the Spectre thought.

* * *

><p>After navigating the passageways, Brittany and Alyssa soon found themselves in the Lab. Brittany grabbed the microphone and began to speak.<p>

"Sammy! We're here, can you virtualize us?"

"I'm in a bit of a jam here! Who's there?"

"It's just me and Alyssa," she replied.

"Alright," he said. "I'll set up the transfers. Get to the Scanners."

* * *

><p>I had my hands full. Two Bloks had appeared, cutting off my escape. So now I had four monsters to deal with, the Scyphozoa, and configuring a transfer to Lyoko.<p>

I managed the last of the list, but I was now trapped against the edge of the platform. Nothing but a ghost-green void awaited me on the other side of the drop. I didn't want to guess what was down in that Digital Sea.

As the Scyphozoa drew near, I lashed out with my claws, impacting with several of the tentacles. I was surprised at what I thought would be an easy victory, but soon realized my folly.

Instead of slicing through the tentacles, they were now wrapped around my laser-like claws. It didn't take long for the Scyphozoa to hoist me into its data transferring grip and begin its job.

As soon as the transfer tentacles began sending signals, the orange glow of my eyes died. I didn't need a mirror to see this. It felt like the Lyoko portion of my DNA had been stripped raw, leaving my entire body processes open to anyone.

My torture did not last long. Brittany and Alyssa had arrived, and before the Scyphozoa's escorts could do anything, Brittany had whirled a fan perfectly on target. It sliced through the three data tentacles, but bounced off the ones holding me.

With its primary purpose removed, the monster was now useless. As Brittany's other fan collided with the arms holding me, it dropped me and floated away. I supposed that the tentacles would break eventually, and XANA wanted to save some repair energy.

Before I could recover, the Slyther crashed down on me, covering all the light in my world.

* * *

><p>As Jim walked to the elevator, Sean hit him from behind. He collapsed to one knee.<p>

"Surprised?" Sean asked. "So am I. I heal quickly."

When Jim's body stopped pixelating, he was ready for combat again. Sean made as if to jump onto Jim, but instead slid on the floor, hoping to knock his feet out.

Surprised, Sean careened right through Jim's legs as if they weren't there. He crashed into a support beam.

Just then, a metal rod collided with the back of Jim's head and he dropped, in a terrible fit of pixelizing.

"Let's go!" Tennent said, dropping his makeshift weapon.

Sean recovered himself and scrambled into the elevator. When he was safely inside, they hit the button. Jim recovered much sooner than they thought he would have though.

Once both of them had reached the Lab, they too reached for the microphone. "What's going on down there?" Tennent asked. "I can see a lot of flashes on the screen."

* * *

><p>The Slyther lunged down on me with its teeth. I thrusted my claws into the gaping mouth and I felt resistance. The creature screamed in agony.<p>

I dug my blades in further, aiming high. I guessed correctly. I penetrated the Eye from inside the Slyther's mouth, and it exploded. I shook my head to clear it.

I then reached under me and found Brittany's fans and picked them up.

I dodged a blast from a Blok and handed her the weapons.

"Nice move," she complimented me.

A few Swoopers and a Wolf materialized to help us out, and that quickly evened the odds.

"What's going on down there?" we heard Tennent ask. "I can see a lot of flashes on the screen."

"Oh, nothing to worry about," I assured him. "Those flashes are just the digital energy flexes caused by the disruption of the virtual field. That happens when lasers fire. It also indicates the presence of monsters."

"That's weird..." I heard Sean mutter. I didn't have time for that now though.

"What's the situation on Earth?" I asked as I crouched behind the Wolf.

"Jim's been possessed by XANA. Tennent and I fought him off, and now we're ready to go. What are you doing on Lyoko?"

"A story for another time!" I answered as the Wolf exploded.

"The Tower is in the Mountains," I said. "I'll virtualize one of you here to help us out, but the other needs to stay and keep an eye out for Jim."

It was quickly decided that Tennent would go and Sean would stay.

After dealing with the rest of the monsters, I virtualized Tennent; we got to the Way-Tower and arrived in the Mountain Sector.

By this time, Jim had found his way into the Lab, despite my blocking of the elevator.

Unaware of the situation, we continued on our way in the Mountain Sector. I materialized our vehicles, the OverBlaze, the OverBoard, the OverGlide and the OverWing.

We now travelled at high speed through the purple landscape. It wasn't long before we encountered some Hornets, and our vehicles began to disappear. We could only guess what had happened.

* * *

><p>Sean put up his best defense, but even still, he was untrained in the combat of XANA possessed individuals. He soon lay on the floor, unconscious.<p>

"Dematerialization, OverBoard, dematerialization, OverWing." Jim spoke in his XANA-fied double voice as he carried out the actions requested by his master.

This would even out the playing field a bit.

* * *

><p>"Jump!" Tennent yelled. We all did so none too soon. As Tennent leaped from his Board, he fired a well-aimed Laser Arrow at a Hornet, disintegrating it.<p>

"Ya-hoo!" he exclaimed in victory.

I landed on the ground hard, but at least I hadn't fallen off the edge. I checked my Life Points, and found that I only had 20 left. Immediately upon this, I was blasted by a Hornet. 15 damage.

"Get to the Tower," I instructed my friends. "I'll try and slow them down."

Tennent fired another Arrow over his shoulder and scored another hit.

"Boy," I said. "I'm on _fire _today!"

"What do you think this is?" Brittany asked. "A game?"

"_Life_ is a game!" Tennent replied.

I launched myself at the Hornet, soaring to their height easily, thanks to my Lyoko Power. A quick slash was all that was necessary to end a Hornet's life. Three down, three to go.

As I fell back to the narrow platform, my back was to the monsters. This proved to be fatal, and the flashes of laser around me were the last thing I saw before waking up in a Scanner.

As soon as the elevator door opened before me, I saw Jim sitting in my seat. I jumped forward with a battle yell.

I saw a smirk on his face as his fist slammed into me so hard that I was flung against the wall. A stream of electricity followed.

The only upside to this was the Sean managed to knock Jim out of his chair at this point, and they were now wrestling on the ground.

My time spend on Lyoko seemed to have made me more resistant to XANA attacks, as I recovered fairly quickly.

We managed to subdue Jim, at least for a while.

I looked at the screen and saw the Hornets trailing my friends. At least they were close to the Tower.

* * *

><p>Tennent ran in a zigzag attempting to dodge the hot lasers. For the most part, the Hornets didn't have much luck hitting them.<p>

Suddenly, a bolt impacted. He kept running.

"How many Life Points do I have left, Sammy?" he asked.

"60," I replied. "You can sustain four more hits from those Hornets before being sent back to Earth."

"Great to know... Here we go!" Tennent said suddenly.

He turned around and ran towards the monsters, leaped up, and declared, "Laser Arrows!"

Seven projectiles flew to the Hornets, and two of them found their mark.

"Yeah!" He exclaimed. "Today is just my day!" With that, a laser hit him in the back. He collapsed with an, "Oof!" When the girls turned around, he gestured to them, "Go on!" he said.

He looked at the final Hornet, preparing for a duel.

* * *

><p>At this moment, Jim wrestled free from Sean's grasp. He shot out electricity, and used it to lift Sean into the air. He panicked.<p>

A few moments later, the Eye of XANA faded from Jim's pupils and he fell to the ground.

"Whew!" Sean said, wiping the sweat off of his forehead.

"That was close," I agreed.

I rematerialized the rest of the gang, and we transported the unconscious Jim to the Infirmary. When we had laid him on the bed, we explained to the nurse that we had found him in the woods, and he had possibly hit his head.

She thanked us, and we went our merry way.

I pulled Sean aside once we were out of earshot of the other students.

"When I was explaining what all the flashes were on the SuperComputer's Interface, you seemed confused by something. What was it?"

"Alright," he began. The rest of the group listened in. "You said that the way the SuperComputer tracks the monsters is because of their disruption of the digital field, right?"

"Yes," I told him.

"And you said that you can see the energy pulses from the discharges of lasers for the same reason, correct?"

"Right again," I informed him.

"So when the SuperComputer tracks us Lyoko Warriors, how come we show up as green triangles and the monsters show up as red dots?"

"It's just a classification," I explained. "The Computer is programmed to look for certain patterns, and when it finds those patterns, it identifies them on the screen as either humans or monsters. It developed this system because of its own adaptive coding."

"Alright," Sean said. "Now for the big question."

"Uh-oh," I said jokingly.

"ANAX's monsters register on the screen as blue circles. Why is that?"

I thought about this for a minute. "I don't have an answer for you, Sean," I said after a while.

"Let me go and check it out tomorrow, and see if I can decipher anything."

He nodded.

I had the reputation of being able to solve any mystery, and I didn't plan on giving that up now.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

_*Riiiiiing riiiiiiing ring!* _The school bell noisily alerted us students that it was time to get to our next class. I grabbed my stuff and ran down the hall with the other students to make it to Science class with Mrs. Morgan.

As I passed the window I noted that the Student Hub was almost complete. It should be opening within the next few weeks if the outer appearance was any guide.

When I had reached my seat, I got my text book out and sat down. Most of the other students had done the same.

Immediately after the lesson started, Tennent tapped me from behind and asked, "Did you find out anything new, Einstein?"

"No," I whispered back. "I didn't even go over to the Factory last night."

"Oh." He sounded a little disappointed.

"I'll probably go tonight. And I needed to go anyway, whether it's about ANAX's monsters or not."

"Why is that?"

"Because I need to map the data for a trip to Sector 5. More work on the Scyphozoa," I told him.

"Ah... OK." He slid back into his seat.

Now I heard whispering going on behind me. Tennent was obviously informing Sean of this tidbit of information.

"Atoms are composed of several subatomic particles," Mrs. Morgan read from the text book. "These subatomic particles consist of protons, electrons, and neutrons. The protons-" At this point she stopped, alerted of the disruption that was Tennent and Sean conversing.

"Sean!" Mrs. Morgan said sharply. She stood with her hands akimbo like she always did when she was aggravated.

"Repeat what I just said," She ordered in an icy tone.

"Um..." Sean stumbled for an answer. After just a few seconds, he knew he couldn't delay any longer. He jabbed, "Good salads consist of croutons."

"Really?" She inquired. "Nice to know. However this is not the subject at hand."

Sean turned red. "If you paid half the attention as your cousin does, Belpois, you'd enjoy much more success."

"Yes ma'am." He muttered.

The whispering behind me ceased. After sitting through the rest of the class, it was a joy for most of us when the bell rang. The classroom dissolved instantly into a flurry of activity. Between kids talking, other kids gathering stuff, and more kids rushing for the door, it was pretty hard to catch Mrs. Morgan's last words, "Make sure you study up for this Friday. You've a quiz coming."

As Sean exited the room, I saw Rachel comment, "Y'know, Sean, if you wanted to study with me, I couldn't refuse." Sean stopped.

"You say that as if you're the star student! You're grades aren't any better than mine!" She looked away, downcast.

Sean continued out the door, wearing the expression that said he didn't want to talk about it.

* * *

><p>Normally, I would have offered to help Sean study, but he clearly wasn't in the mood. Tennent was perfectly fine with copying my answers, and for the time being, I let it slide.<p>

After school was over, I made tracks for the Factory. When the elevator door opened before me, ANAX greeted me, "Hey, Sammy. What's up?"

"You've been listening to Tennent talk, haven't you?" I asked dryly.

"Why yes," he said, resuming his normal dignified speech. "I find your lingo fascinating."

"Well... That's nice," I said, not really knowing what else to say.

The awkward moment soon passed, I we got down to business.

"So, ANAX," I began, starting with Sean's question. "My friends and I have noticed something strange about your monsters on Lyoko."

"What's that?"

"Well XANA's monsters show up on radar as red dots. And us Lyoko Warriors show up as green triangles. _Your _monsters show up as _blue _dots. Why do you think that is?"

"Hmm..." ANAX said thoughtfully. "I cannot think of a reason right away," he replied. "Perhaps we should take a look at the radar's coding?"

"I think we should."

So we got busy. It was about half an hour later that I pointed out the difference that occurs from human DNA versus monsters.

"In this string right here," I gestured to the appropriate code, "you can see the difference in the DNA. I think it has to do with the materialization differences, but I'm not sure. What do you think?"

"This is somewhat perplexing," ANAX analyzed. "From this coding, we can see that the radar functions on the principals of DNA detection. And yet the mapping of terrain is done differently altogether and there is no sign of how this is accomplished."

"I agree," I answered. "It seems rather odd."

So we did some more digging in this area and found that the map of Lyoko was embedded in the radar's coding. All living things were classified by their DNA. Human DNA results in a triangle. We also found that animal DNA resulted in a rectangle. All DNA fabricated on Lyoko appeared as a circle.

"So now the shape mystery is solved," I said.

"But we still don't know why the color is different. We can see that a dog and Odd Della Robbia were virtualized in the same scanner. From this, we've gathered the rectangle by separating the DNA strings. Both Odd and the dog registered as green."

"And for some reason XANA's color is red, and yours is blue," I said unnecessarily.

"The only thing I can think of is that the color blue is associated with your digital signature and the same for XANA. In the same way, orange is associated with _my _digital signature." My eyes flared especially bright for a few seconds.

I went on, "Maybe that's why XANA's active Towers are red, and yours are blue."

"A well thought out deduction," ANAX complemented.

Before I could bask in the praise, he continued, "But something isn't consistent."

"What's that?" I asked somewhat irritably.

"You brought up that the color orange is associated with your digital signature. Yet you appear on the radar as a green triangle, not an orange one."

This sank in for a few seconds. "Rats!" I exclaimed. "So we have nothing."

"Well, not nothing," ANAX said. "Forgive the double negative, but we _do_ know that the type of DNA determines the shape of the radar symbol."

"That's true," I muttered.

I couldn't help but wish that we had solved our mystery, but for now the answers we had would be enough. We proceeded to work on the Scyphozoa defense program.

* * *

><p>Unknown to us, XANA lurked on Lyoko. He didn't have access to the data displayed on the SuperComputer's screen, but thanks to the ignorance of his enemies, he could hear every word they uttered from Sammy's microphone.<p>

"Fools," XANA thought to himself. "They know so little. They're working with an incomplete record of the SuperComputer's data!"

* * *

><p>-Interlude from XANA's memory—<p>

* * *

><p>"XANA," Franz spoke into his microphone, reclined in the seat.<p>

"Yes, master?" XANA responded instantly.

"Training time," Franz said. Activate the Tower and materialize 15 agents for me."

"Of course," XANA never questioned his maker. Deep in "Carthage," or "Sector 5," XANA went to work. He sent the proper signal and the Tower's white fog turned to blue. Within a minute, 15 blue circles had appeared on Franz's screen.

"_Very _good, XANA!" Franz praised. "You're getting more skilled. I think it's time we took your training to another level."

Franz materialized several "agents," (better known as "Creepers") from his screen. 10 green circles appeared opposite of XANA's 15.

"Destroy them," Franz ordered.

"I live to serve you," XANA complied.

* * *

><p>-End Interlude—<p>

* * *

><p>"Such a long time ago, that was," XANA thought. It would have stayed that way forever had it not been for... NoviEk. The very mention of the name caused XANA to draw himself further into one of the few emotions he felt: Hate.<p>

* * *

><p>"Transfer, Brittany," I announced. "Transfer, Alyssa ... Scanner Brittany ... Scanner, Alyssa ... Virtualization!" When I hit the enter key, the magnetic wave's disassembled the girls' atoms and the patterns were stored in the SuperComputer's memory. Recognizing the DNA sequence code, the Computer materialized their Lyoko Avatars with the real Alyssa and Brittany's minds controlling them.<p>

After performing a similar procedure for Tennent, Sean, and myself I soon arrived in the Mountain Sector of Lyoko.

"So do you know what data you're going after?" Brittany asked me. ANAX answered, "Yes, we know the code strings that we need from XANA's memory. We should be able to use this information to piece together a shield for you all."

"Thanks, ANAX," I said dryly.

"Anytime," he replied, not catching my tone.

I shrugged it off and pointed in the direction we needed to travel. "The edge of the sector is that way."

"Would you like an escort?"

Of course we did. So that's why the three SpikeSaurs appeared in the distance before we could answer.

"If you run into more problems, I've got some Ghosts and Disks ready to be materialized."

"Thanks," Sean said.

By now, Vine and the others had arrived. "Are we ready to go?" he asked.

"Whenever you are," Tennent replied. "Let's move!"

And move we did. I'd set us a reasonable distance from our destination so that we'd have ample warning if XANA sent monsters after us. We didn't want to do combat right next to the Digital Sea if it could possibly be avoided.

"Look up ahead," Shadow gestured with his muzzle.

Monsters were just beginning to form. A quick look at the LI confirmed one Slyther and 3 Bloks. Nothing we couldn't handle.

I announced the monsters to our party and we split into battle formation. The SpikeSaurs formed a short arc and we filled in the space between them. An incredibly short skirmish followed and soon all the enemies lay dead. Only Sean had lost Life Points, thanks to the claws of the Slyther.

"It is clear that XANA has his true force waiting in Sector 5 where we cannot assist you," Sky said. "I'm sorry."

"Well I guess it's time for us to get to Sector 5," I said. When we stepped onto the very edge of Lyoko, the LI prompted me to enter the password. I typed quickly on the holo-keys, "Scipio."

The white transport orb swiftly appeared and scooped us up, leaving Vine, Shadow, and Sky behind. Now the _real _challenge was about to begin.

* * *

><p>As soon as the transporter let us out, Tennent stumbled comically across the arena. He moaned and groaned as he usually did, but for once he didn't say any words.<p>

"Right," I said when he had gathered himself. "The wall is open and the timer has begun. We'd better get going."

"I'm not arguing there," Alyssa said. "The faster we get this over with the better."

"Ah, you know me, Alyssa," Tennent chimed. "Quick and slippery as a fish. XANA's got nothing on me!"

We laughed briefly, but when we entered the core room, things got serious. It was deadly quiet, and we all knew that meant we were walking into a trap.

The LI ran on auto-pilot, quickly locating the key, but it was not needed. The key lay in plain sight, maybe 10 feet off the ground.

We heard a low growl from behind us and suddenly turned around. Creepers were pouring out from a pit that had formed in the ground.

A machine hiss was heard from the other side of the room, and another one of these pits opened. More Creepers crawled out.

"We're surrounded!" Brittany exclaimed.

"Better be careful," ANAX warned. "If my assumptions are correct, Hannah will be joining you shortly."

I glanced down at my screen and saw that ANAX was right. Digital energy was converging, and it seemed likely that it was Hannah. XANA always knew when I wasn't looking at my LI, but ANAX covered for me.

"Thanks for the warning," Sean said. Just then, a purple lightning bolt ripped from the ceiling. After the supernova of light, Hannah stood in the middle of the room, wreathed in purple smoke and electricity.

"Huh," Tennent said. "That's new."

"It's good to see you all again," she said with an evil smirk. "I know what you want, and you're not getting it today."

"We'll see about that!" Sean shouted.

* * *

><p>His mind raced furiously. Six Creepers stood on either side of them and Hannah was a mere meter away. Sean didn't know what to do. He already had the least Life Points of all the Lyoko Warriors, and there were still thirteen enemies to destroy. Normally, without ANAX's help, they could never take on that many and expect to win.<p>

However, if they could use XANA's own toys against himself... Sean sprang into action. Any talking would give away his intentions and they'd lose the element of surprise. He would just have to hope that his friends caught on.

"Fire!" Hannah ordered as her staff materialized. Sean ran to the Creepers in front of him and drew their fire. When he was sure they'd focused on him, he bobbed and weaved his way to the other side of the Core Chamber.

Out of the corner of his eye, Sean noted that Hannah was occupied.

He was nearly the second line of Creepers when he heard someone call out, "Sean! What are you doing? We need you over here!"

As much as he wanted to, he couldn't answer the call. He was nearly finished.

Now dodging lasers from two directions, he leaped over the second line of Creepers. A bolt hit him and he fell to the ground, but the purpose was achieved. He was now using the line of Creepers as a shield from the first ones. Too slow to stop shooting in time, the Creepers ended up halving their number. All six bit the dust.

Sean pumped his fist in victory, but before he had even completed the motion, a claw of purple energy hit him. Hard.

He was thrown backwards, the electric current rushing through his Digital Envelope. He didn't know all the science behind it, but he knew his Life Point total was dropping like a rock. In just a few seconds, he hit zero and disappeared into digital dust.

* * *

><p>Brittany and Tennent leaped and whirled around Hannah While Sammy and Alyssa defended them from the Creepers lasers. Hannah had her hands full with two swiftly moving targets, but she was still deadly accurate. Tennent dive-rolled to her side, and quicker than Brittany would have believed possible, Hannah lashed out her staff. Tennent fell away, his shoulder sparking. This was a customary sign that showed a Warrior had just taken damage.<p>

Brittany jumped up high and threw a fan low, aiming for Hannah's feet.

Anticipating the move, Hannah skipped over the weapon, smoothly turned, and blasted Sean from afar.

"Woah!" Tennent said. He was beginning to recover. Where a half-dozen Creepers once stood, there was now nothing but air. _Had Sean taken them all out? _Tennent wondered. He made a mental note to ask him how he had done it.

Brittany caught her fan and rolled to the side, coming up near her adversary. She struck quick, but Hannah was quicker. She grabbed Brittany's wrist before the blow came down.

"Don't think you can stop me!" She hissed.

"Laser Arrow!" Tennent yelled. His aim was true, striking Hannah directly in the back. Tennent knew it was cowardly, but every goes in the struggle against XANA.

Hannah fell forward, but before Brittany could deliver a finishing blow, she dissolved into a giant purple spark. "SuperSpark!" Hannah's voice said, though she couldn't be seen. Brittany stumbled backwards in surprise as the spark began to fly about.

_Looks like XANA's upgraded her programming," _Brittany thought.

* * *

><p>Tennent was surprised by the transformation to be sure, but his mind didn't stop working. Adrenalin worked differently on Lyoko. Sammy had explained it once, something about their bodies not being all there, scientific jargon. In any case, Tennent knew that instead of dulling the mind, like adrenalin does on earth, it increases critical thinking abilities. This was one of the many times Tennent was glad of that fact.<p>

His eyes followed the purple light, and fired at the precise moment. Hannah materialized at the exact second Tennent hoped she would and the Arrow struck hard. With a cry of agony, Hannah went down. A poof of purple smoke later, she had vanished.

"Nice timing," Brittany congratulated him.

"Piece of cake!" He boasted.

Seeing their leader vanquished, the Creepers slunk off.

Tennent turned to Alyssa and I, "Thanks for covering us," he said.

"Don't mention it," Alyssa told him.

* * *

><p>After hitting the key just in time, we sprinted full speed down the hallway that had opened. We rode the elevator and arrived promptly at the Celestial Dome.<p>

Every time I walked out there it took my breath away.

With no time to waste, I swiftly opened the Interface and began to work. I had set my LI so that we would have notice of any uninvited visitors. I also read from the device and called out everyone's life point totals.

"Hey, Sammy," Tennent intoned.

"What's that?" I asked back.

"Are you forgetting something?"

"Rats!" I said closing the Interface. I entered the commands for the OverBoard, OverGlide, and the OverWing.

"Finally," Tennent muttered.

"You're welcome."

I resumed my work. The Mantas soon arrived to put up a fight and my friends took off, weaving in a defensive position.

My finger hovered over a button, and before I pressed it, ANAX called out, "Not the A string! We need the B string!"

"Sorry," I said as I made the proper adjustments.

With the help of ANAX's excellent memory, we were done in record time. Three Mantas still remained, but it hardly mattered. Closing the Interface, I was now able to navigate the LI again.

"All finished?" Brittany said pulling up next to me.

"Yup."

"Hop on," she said gesturing.

I did so, holding onto her shoulders for balance. With the LI now functioning properly, my voice echoed throughout the Dome when I said, "Tennent, Alyssa, we're all done here. I'm opening the north-most tunnel."

"Gotcha," Alyssa said.

I entered the command from the LI and Brittany zoomed north-wards. I was glad that Lyoko enhanced your sense of direction in that way, it made direction giving much easier.

We flew by a pair of Mantas and they screeched as we got away. There was nothing they could do; we were safe.

* * *

><p>After rematerializing us, we reconvened in the Lab. I sat in my chair, reviewing the data we had collected and the rest of the group was scattered throughout the room.<p>

"Did we get what we needed?" Tennent asked.

"We sure did," I informed him.

"Now we should be able to make a defense program against the Scyphozoa," ANAX inserted. "If it works, this will be a great step forward."

"So Sammy," Sean began. "Did you find any info on why ANAX's monsters are different?"

"Yes I did," I answered him. "I've got some pretty good guesses, but nothing definitive. For now, it's all I can get."

"Ok, shoot," he said.

I began explaining, "Essentially, the circle we see is because the monsters' DNA was created on Lyoko. The radar is coded to display these life forms as circles. Human DNA in like manner is portrayed as a triangle."

Alyssa stopped me, "Wait, monsters have DNA?"

"Yeah," I said. "It's too complicated for me to describe, especially because of the differences of our DNA, and digital DNA. So the monsters very nearly qualify as being alive by the scientific standard, which is a little strange."

"What are they missing to be able to be considered alive?" Brittany asked.

"Well they can't reproduce in any way, shape, or form," I said, "so that disqualifies them."

"So what's up with the color difference?" Sean asked.

"I really don't know. I thought for a little bit that it had something to do with digital signatures, but ANAX disproved that idea by pointing out that _our _radar dots' color does not coincide with _our _digital signature's color.

"So I think it has something to do with the way Lyoko recognizes ANAX as opposed to XANA. The radar coding doesn't help much, but it suggests that XANA is foreign for some reason, while ANAX is not."

"But that's completely backwards!" Brittany interjected. "XANA was created _with _Lyoko, right? And ANAX came afterwards – No offense, ANAX," she added.

"None taken."

"Like I said," I repeated, "I don't know how to explain it."

"In that case, it seems kinda wrong to call ANAX's creatures 'monsters,'" Sean said.

"Because ANAX isn't foreign to Lyoko, right?" I asked.

"Yeah," Sean told me. "It just doesn't seem right to refer to ANAX in the same way we do XANA, does it."

"You're right," I agreed.

A chorus of agreement sounded from the rest of our group as well.

"So what are you going to call them instead?" ANAX asked.

We thought about that for a few seconds, and Tennent was the first one to speak up.

"Since your monsters are so mechanical, why don't we call them 'Droids'?"

"It's a good distinction," Sean said.

"I agree," Brittany said.

"And so do I," Alyssa added.

"What do you think, ANAX?" I asked.

"Sounds good to me," he said.

And so from then on, we called ANAX's monsters, Droids.

**Author's Notes: First of all, I have to say that the name of "Droids" is subject to change, as it's from Star Wars... But I really can't think of a better name. Any suggestions are welcome, leave them in the reviews please!**

**Also, the mysterious entity "NoviEk" has had its first mention. This is critical to the story, but I can't tell you anything more about it. You'll be seeing a whole lot concerning this, but no spoilers! Any theories are welcome!**


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

As the bell rang, kids streamed from the doors of classrooms all over the school. We had finally finished for the day.

I headed up to my room to finalize the Scyphozoa defense program. Alyssa and Brittany also went to their room to do some studying.

Meanwhile, Tennent and Sean would have their own adventure.

* * *

><p>"Hey, Sean," Tennent called almost as soon as they were out the door of their classroom.<p>

"What's up?" Sean replied in question.

"The guys are having a basketball tournament in half an hour on the court. You wanna go?"

"Do you know how to spell tournament?" Sean countered.

Tennent clumsily stuttered around for a few seconds before hastily replying, "T-u-r-n-a-m-e-n-t!"

Sean let out a snort of laughter.

"Do _you _know how to spell it?" Tennent asked with a wounded pride.

"As a matter of fact," Sean replied, "I do. T-o-u-r-n-a-m-e-n-t."

"C'mon, I was only one letter off," Tennent protested. "You know I stink at spelling."

"That's why I asked the question," Sean said with a smirk.

"Well do you want to play B-ball with us or not?" Tennent asked.

"Sure, I'll play."

When the two friends got to the court, they found that most of the players had already assembled. When they arrived, Henry Parker exclaimed, "It looks like we've got enough for five-on-five now. We can start."

Henry was a 10th grader and the oldest kid there. So he seemed to take charge. He and Jared were the team captains.

Henry started by choosing Xavier, and then Jared chose Tennent. This continued until all the players had a team.

Henry- Jared

Xavier- Tennent

Ed- Sean

Micah- Buddy

Danny- Griffin

They played for about 45 minutes until Jared's team hit 20 points, the agreed upon winning score. The team high-fived each other enthusiastically.

On the way back to the dorm, said, "Whew! I'm tired. I haven't played like that in a while."

"I know, man," Tennent agreed. "It was crazy how many times that ball could change hands!"

Exhausted but happy, they entered the dorm hallway. They found Micah waiting for them.

"Hey Micah," Sean said, "great game!"

Micah spat on the ground. "I think you cheated," he declared.

"Why would you think that?" Tennent demanded. "We beat you fair and square!"

"And I say you're lying!" Micah shouted. "And there's got to be some pay-back." He raised his fist.

When it came down, Sean reacted without thinking. He jumped backwards, performing a backflip before rebounding off the nearby wall. He cannoned into Micah sending him flying.

All three of the boys' eyes were wide with amazement.

A teacher walked by (Mrs. Morgan) and they quickly dusted themselves off. She suspected nothing.

"We'll finish this later," Micah grumbled as he stalked away.

* * *

><p>*<em>Blam* *Blam* *Blam*<em>

I heard a vigorous knocking at my door. "Excuse me, ANAX," I said, getting up.

"Certainly," he replied.

I opened the door to find Sean and Tennent staring at me with wide eyes. I couldn't read their emotions.

"What's up?" I inquired awkwardly. "Has something happened?"

"You bet it has," Sean said as he walked in.

"Remember a while back," Tennent began, "when I was testing out your new scooter?"

"Yeah," I said.

"And remember how I said something weird happened, how I reacted to falling and I didn't get hurt?"

"Yeah..."

"Well something like that happened again, but it was much bigger!"

"Micah tried to hit me," Sean explained. "And my reflexes took over, and I did a backflip, then wall-jumped into Micah, bowling him over!"

"Uh-oh," I said. "I think I may have an answer to your question," I said.

* * *

><p>A few minutes later, we were in the Lab. With ANAX's help, it hadn't taken me long to bring up a schematic of the Scanners.<p>

Use of the Scanners combined with time spent on Lyoko resulted in a side effect called, "Exovirtualreflexis."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Tennent asked. "That doesn't help any!"

Google didn't return any matches, but I didn't expect it to. I just wanted Tennent and Sean to see that. Bringing up an analysis of our virtual structures and human DNA sequence codes, I assessed the situation.

ANAX, of course, summed it up much better than I could have. "It seems as if the Scanners have made modifications to your DNA structure. It's taken some time, but by now this change has multiplied far enough into your body processes, that you react the same way in tense situations as you do on Lyoko."

"So that's a good thing then?" Sean asked.

"As far as practicality goes, yes it is a good thing," I answered. "It means we'll be able to counter XANA attacks on Earth easier.

"But in principal... Well... Doesn't it just seem kinda wrong that our DNA has been modified by these Scanners?"

I got nothing but blank stares.

"Just think; how are those changes being made? What else is Lyoko doing to us?"

"Well it already changed our eye color," Tennent said, that fact clearly evident in the gloom of the Factory. "That hasn't hurt us. This hasn't hurt us either."

"Hm..."

"Don't worry about, Sammy," Sean said. "I'm sure it's fine. The Scanners were _made _to put people on Lyoko, so it must be safe."

"It's not quite that simple," I muttered.

"In any event, ANAX and I need to check out the full extent of these changes, to see if anything more major has been done. You can go do whatever you want."

Just as I finished my sentence, the Interface began beeping.

"Oh no! XANA alert!" I exclaimed.

"We'll get to the Scanners!" Tennent called, already in the elevator. "Call the girls!"

The door hissed as it closed.

* * *

><p>Alyssa and Brittany were just finishing up on their homework when it happened. At first, all they heard was a quiet "<em>whirring" <em>noise. Both girls dismissed it without a word.

Gradually though, it became louder and louder. The still paid no attention. Then they heard the screams.

"Aaaiiee!" Someone yelled. "It's a monster!"

Upon hearing that, Brittany jumped out of her seat, soon to be followed by Alyssa. "We'd better check it out," She said.

A heartbeat later, the door to their dorm was bashed in. The barely ducked in time. They heard the glass of their window shatter behind them as the door smashed into it.

Standing in the ripped open doorway was some type of electric monster! Blue energy beams held hairdryers, curling irons, and all sorts of electric devices together. A very familiar eye swirled in the center of the energy vortex.

"XANA!" Alyssa gasped.

The energy monster wasted no time in launching an attack. A bolt of energy fried the floor where Brittany was an instant before.

The energy field was creating more and more noise, so it was hard for Brittany to hear Alyssa when she shouted, "We've got to get outside! We can't fight it in this small space!"

"I agree!" Brittany shouted back, doing her best to dodge the attacks. "But how? That monster is blocking the door!"

Alyssa looked over her shoulder at the broken window.

"No!" Brittany protested. She jumped over a blast from the other side of the room. "We'd never survive the fall!"

"Do you have another solution?" Alyssa didn't wait for Brittany to give an answer before replying, "'Cause we're not gonna last long against this thing, so we've got to get out quick."

Through all the noise, Alyssa didn't hear her phone ringing. It sat beside her bed, which was a charred heap of springs and fluff now.

Dodging a bolt from XANA's monster, Alyssa jumped on the desk, and out the window. Her hand caught a window sill on the floor below, and she hung there.

As she expected, Brittany soon followed her. However, Brittany didn't get as good a grip as Alyssa did, and she fell to the ground.

Alyssa watched, amazed, as Brittany hit the ground in a roll, and got up unharmed.

"Alyssa!" Brittany called. "You've got to get down from there!"

"I know, I know!" She yelled back.

Suddenly, the electric monster appeared in the window above. A hail of blue lightning rained down on Alyssa and she instinctively let go of her handhold.

She was surprised to find that she had performed a roll and landed unharmed, just like Brittany.

"That was cool," Brittany said. At that, the monster jumped down and began firing at them.

"That, however," Alyssa added, "was not."

"Run!" Brittany said.

The command was unnecessary. They both tore through the school grounds with the electricity hot on their tails.

* * *

><p>"Virtualization!" I announced as I hit the button. With the command received, I saw the scanners go to work. They broke down Sean and Tennent's atoms and recorded them in the SuperComputer's Qubit memory. Soon, their digital forms materialized in the virtual world of Lyoko. Their brains assumed control of these digital blocks of code and began operating within them to make them function.<p>

In short, the virtualization had taken place successfully.

I send off a call to Alyssa's cell phone, but she didn't answer. I reported this to my friends in the Forest Sector.

"Then you'd better get down here, Einstein," Tennent said. "That probably means that they're in trouble."

"You're probably right," I agreed.

So in a few short minutes, I had joined them on the bright green, narrow platform they were standing on.

My friends had previously received instructions on the direction of the Tower, so no further direction was needed. As soon as I stood up from my landing, I materialized our vehicles and we set off south-east.

I glanced down at my radar. "Looks like XANA doesn't waste any time," I commented. "Three MegaTanks, up ahead."

"It's been a while since we've seen those guys!" Tennent said cheerfully.

"Watch it," Sean warned. "This isn't a game."

Tennent waved him off. We could see the MegaTanks now. We could also see the Tower.

"Time to play!" Tennent said, jumping into the air.

Sean and I both rolled our eyes.

I swung my OverBlaze out in a wide arc, intending to get behind the monsters. One of the 'Tanks spotted me, and began firing.

"I am sorry that I am unable to assist you," ANAX said. "XANA's forces have my Droids occupied in another part of this Sector. If I divert my resources, then that wave of monsters may attack you."

"We understand, ANAX," I told him as I swerved to avoid a wall of yellow laser.

Lining up a shot, I fired my rocket, knocking one of the MegaTanks off the platform. A beam of digital energy erupted where the monster had connected with the corrosive Digital Sea. As the energy levels compensated themselves, excess power was diverged in the form of the energy stream we now saw.

"Nice shot!" Tennent complimented me. Then, sighting up a shot of his own, he fired at the vulnerable eye of another monster.

The MegaTank closed its shell just in time to avoid being obliterated.

"Aww," Tennent complained. "It's not fair!" He swept his OverBoard out of the path of a laser.

Sean activated his Super Stealth, and the next time a MegaTank opened up, he took the opportunity to dispose of it.

We all worked together fighting that last one. We were almost done when Tennent pointed in the distance. "Look over there!"

I could hardly believe my digitally synthetic eyes. A glance at my LI proved that I had not seen wrong.

An uncountable mass of monsters were pushing a small bedraggled patrol of Droids backwards to our position. And they were closing fast!

* * *

><p>Brittany and Alyssa had reached the Park. This gave them a slight advantage, since they could duck behind trees for cover. Both of the girls had several burn marks on their arms, legs, and backs, but they kept running, desperate to keep the monster away from the school grounds.<p>

"How can we fight this thing?" Brittany gasped.

"We can't!" Alyssa replied. "If we even touch it we'll be fried to a crisp! We've just got to keep it busy long enough for the guys to deactivate the Tower!"

A few seconds later, Alyssa's foot hit a root, and she collapsed to the ground.

"Go on!" She urged Brittany when she turned.

But when she saw the energy monster pounce on Alyssa and send currents running through her body, she could just run away.

On an impulse of rage, Brittany wrenched a branch from a nearby tree and slammed it into the monster.

"Ha!" She exclaimed as the field holding the equipment together temporarily collapsed. "Wood doesn't conduct electricity!"

Her triumph faded when she saw that the monster was already reforming.

"Come on!" She urged Alyssa.

"I can't make it..." Alyssa whimpered. "It hurts even to move..."

"Well I'm not leaving you!" Brittany yelled.

She picked her up and began to carry her away.

_They better hurry up with that Tower! _Brittany thought.

* * *

><p>The MegaTank charged past us, bowling over a couple of Klankers. They disintegrated.<p>

"Get to the Tower!" ANAX urged us. "My Droids can keep XANA's forces occupied for another few seconds! Go, go, go!"

Sean whipped the OverLoad around and zipped to the red Tower. Tennent and I leaped to cover him. Thanks to the unparalleled speed of the OverLoad, he reached the Tower quickly. When he exited the Tower, I hit the button to rematerialize us.

As my atoms were reassembled in the Scanner, I felt the familiar discomfort of being rematerialized. When the Scanner finally opened, I stumbled out.

"Whew!"

* * *

><p>Carrying Alyssa, Brittany was greatly slowed. XANA's monster was gaining quickly. It pounced, but before the motion was completed, the energy holding it together disappeared, and the hairdryers and curling irons fell to the ground.<p>

After a while, Brittany managed to get to the Lab and alert her friends that a Return to the Past was needed. That was soon done.

Now they could relax, at least until XANA's next attack.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

"So what are you saying?" Brittany asked incredulously. "You mean our DNA has changed more than we thought it had?"

"Hey, cool it," Sean said. "It's no big deal."

"That's what _you _think!" Brittany whirled to face him.

We were gathered in my dorm, the computer turned on so that ANAX could listen in. After discussing our discoveries, Brittany had her outburst.

"How much can our DNA be changed before something more obvious changes in our bodies?" Brittany went on, her eyes flashing deep purple.

Sean didn't have an answer for her. His gray eyes looked surprised.

When he didn't answer her, she continued, "Suppose after fifty more virtualizations, some other part of our DNA changes. What do we do if it's something we can't hide?"

I decided I'd better step in. Sean couldn't look more at loss for words.

"Brittany, we don't know enough about this change to assume anything," I said carefully.

She turned to pin me with her purple gaze. I didn't like that.

"You know more than any of us about Lyoko and how it works! The fact that you don't know why this has happened just makes things worse!"

I winced. I actually didn't know what to say to that.

Alyssa voiced her view on the situation. "It's probably just the way the Scanners work," She said. "It has to use or DNA somehow, and changes are bound to happen. Since we don't know the extent of these changes, 'what-if-ing' doesn't help. We might as well make the best of the changes since they've already happened."

Brittany seemed to calm down. She always had been the most practically minded of all of us for the long term defeat of XANA.

I breathed a silent thanks to Alyssa. Sometimes you needed a girl to resolve a girl problem.

"So," Tennent concluded. "We might as well use or new abilities to fight XANA. Even if they _can _be reversed, it wouldn't do us any good. It would just make us weaker."

"I guess I see the sense in that," Brittany admitted. "But I still don't like it. We'd better be done with XANA soon."

ANAX made his first comment in the conversation. "We are doing everything we can," he said in his digitally synthetic voice. "We still don't know everything about XANA, and were he gets his power, so until we do, we have to keep searching."

"Jeremy's journal has been a huge help in that area, but we're still missing something I think is vitally important."

"Well I'm glad you're working on it," Brittany said. In a more normal voice, she added, "Thanks."

"No problem," I said. Now that the Scyphozoa program was complete – for now at least – I could devote my efforts to decoding the journal.

After saying their good-byes, my friends left the room.

I turned in my swivel chair to face the screen. My fingers clicked the keys, opening the file of Jeremy's encrypted records.

"So, ANAX," I said. "I noticed you lack of contributions to the conversation."

He didn't need me to say anything more. "My human interaction skills are still quite poor, I feel." He said to me. "Even poorer are my skills in diplomacy. There is only so much I can gather about human behavior patterns from the Internet. Most of my knowledge I must gather from watching you and your friends."

"I see," I told him. "I think you'd learn more by speaking up every once in a while and seeing what kind of reactions those comments get."

"If you think so, Sammy, I'd be willing to try it."

I wondered where my suggestion would take ANAX. He was just an AI. Albeit a fully sentient AI, but he still ran on Lyoko code. He would view a given situation, calculate what was happening, and give the most logical response according to his large database. Then he would store the reaction of the people involved according to his categories. Based on the degree of positive or negative-ness, he could learn to handle human stress, anxiety, etc.

Though I wondered if this meant he would express every suggestion or "thought" that came to his digital mind. But then on the other hand, he was extremely smart, and he might already realize that he would be annoying if he did that. Only time would tell.

"Sammy, are we going to get working, or are you just going to stare at the screen?"

"Yes, yes," I said with a smile. "Let's get started."

* * *

><p>"I wonder what's for dinner," Sean said to Tennent as they were walking to the cafeteria.<p>

"Ah, it's probably soup. I'm getting a soupy vibe from the cafeteria."

"What are you talking about?" Sean asked, confused. "What do you mean, 'soupy vibe'?"

"I have ESP."

"Do you even know what that stands for?" Sean demanded.

"No," Tennent retorted, "but I bet you don't either." He pumped his fist at Sean's silence. It looked like he had won another verbal battle.

When they reached the cafeteria, they promptly got in line for their food.

Sean commented on the smell wafting through the air, "It looks like you were right, Tennent."

"Yeah, you don't mess with Tennent the Great's awesome powers of ESP!" At that moment, a bowl of tomato soup careened through the air and landed directly on Tennent's perfectly spiked hair.

Sean burst out laughing, unable to contain himself at the irony of the situation.

"So much for your ESP!" He said through his mirth. "Didn't see that coming, did you?"

Having observed the incident, Tyce shouted, "Food fight!"

Kylie was accustomed to outbursts like this, so she quickly stepped in to stop chaos from breaking out.

"The first person to throw a crumb will find themselves in detention!" She casually called.

I was sure many people were thinking that she didn't say anything about liquids, but even those people were smart enough not to do anything out of line. _Congrats, Mrs. Tyler, _Sean thought. _Crisis averted._

Tennent staked out of the room to go and clean up. Sean, being the good friend that he is, decided to follow and help.

On the way to the bathroom, they passed Rachel and her two shadows.

"Woah!" She commented. "What happened to you, Tennent?"

Tennent opened his mouth to give a sharp retort, but Sean beat him to it. "There was a giant raccoon in the lunch room and it attacked Tennent. He's got some nasty wounds so we're off to the Infirmary.

Rachel's eyes widened as she gullibly took the bait. She clearly thought that the tomato soup was blood!

Tennent finally understood what Sean was getting at. To enforce the insult, he scooped some soup up with his fingers and popped it into his mouth.

"Mmh! Tastes good!" He said, barely managing to hide a grin.

"Oh, you are so gross!" Rachel screeched as she ran away.

Phillip marched up to Tennent and stared him down... that is, up. Tennent was a full two inches taller than him.

"That's not blood! It's just soup! Rachel's gonna be real mad when she finds out!" He warned.

Sean stepped closer to Phillip in a threatening manner. "Look, Pichon, you've got a couple of problems here. One, you act as if Rachel's anger is something to be feared. Two, Rachel _never _abides by the old saying, _'Don't kill the messenger'._

"Think about that."

Phillip gave something like a growl as he walked away grumbling.

As soon as they were out of earshot, the two friends started laughing.

"That was classic, bro!" Tennent complimented Sean.

"I didn't think she'd really believe it," Sean admitted.

"But she did! She'll bite _anything_, dude!" Tennent said.

"So that's twice I've beaten you tonight."

"Yeah, but I'd say I'm still ahead by a few billion wins!"

They were having too much fun to hold grudges.

So after Tennent was cleaned up, they went back to the cafeteria to eat in the time remaining. Unbeknownst to them, XANA had other plans.

* * *

><p>"When you boys get finished," Kylie said over her shoulder, "just make sure you pull the door shut on your way out."<p>

"Yes, ma'am," Sean said. He had finished eating, but he was waiting on Tennent.

Every building on school campus had an automatic locking mechanism, and at a given time, the door would lock from the outside. That's why Kylie had said what she said.

However, this locking mechanism did not extend to every door on the campus, for example, the door to the boiler room that leads to the sewers. Lucky break for the Lyoko Warriors.

Sure that she was understood, Kylie walked out the door. It gave a loud click as it shut.

"You about done yet?" Sean asked as Tennent slurped another mouthful. "It's getting really late," he commented.

"Yeah, but don't forget that I had all that clean up to do, so it delayed my feeding."

Sean rolled his eyes at Tennent's wording.

As Tennent dropped his empty bowl into the sink, he turned to Sean. "Now I'm ready to go."

"Finally."

Suddenly, a bright flash of light flared from one of the wall sockets.

Both Sean and Tennent hit the ground instinctively. As they looked up, the saw one of XANA's Spectres looming over them.

"Aaahh!" Tennent shouted in surprise.

The Spectre soared over them and dove down the drain of the sink. For several moments, nothing happened.

"What's going on?" Sean asked.

"No idea! We better call Sammy!"

As Tennent dialed his phone, the faucet burst. Torrents of water gushed out, quickly taking the form of some massive beast.

"Run!" Sean yelled.

They made a dash for the closest door, the back one. The slammed the door shut and it locked behind them, but that did little to stop the water. It just collapsed to slide under the door and reform.

"Yikes! Wasn't expecting that one!" Tennent said.

As they ran away, Tennent finally managed to hit the send button on his phone.

"What's up?" Sammy's voice asked.

"XANA alert!" Tennent shouted. We're being chased by some water monster of XANA's!"

"Don't worry," Sammy said. "I'll get the girls and we'll head to the Factory! Keep the monster away from the school."

"Easy for you to say," Sean muttered.

"Good luck," Sammy said.

"Ditto."

* * *

><p>I quickly sent out the text message to Alyssa and Brittany telling them to meet me at the Factory. Without missing a beat, ANAX matched my actions, already scanning for the activated Tower, preparing our vehicles, and getting some back-up ready.<p>

I was out the door before he was finished.

"See you on Lyoko," ANAX said to my back. I acknowledged him with a wave.

I raced through the woods, making it to the secret manhole entrance. Checking around me, I knew it was clear.

I descended into the dank air and grabbed my scooter. I noticed that Brittany's skateboard and Alyssa's scooter had not been taken yet.

I figured that I could use the extra time to configure our plan. Or at least, listen to ANAX do that.

I skidded to a halt in front of the ladder when my underground journey was complete. Climbing up the ladder, I noted the time; 8:07.

I jumped off the edge of the Factor's upper floor, grabbed a hanging wire, and slithered down to the elevator with a slightly less awkward landing than usual.

I hit the button and dropped down to the Lab. "Greetings," ANAX's voice resonated from the speakers. "It's good to know that we can mobilize quickly to meet XANA in defense."

"I'm glad of that, too," I said. "If only the girls would get here..."

I twiddled my thumbs for another few minutes before my patience was rewarded.

"We got here as soon as we could," Alyssa informed me.

"Sean and Tennent are being chased by a water monster XANA made! Get to the Scanners; I've already configured the transfers."

"Where's the activated Tower?" Brittany asked.

"In the Ice Sector. Let's go, we don't have any time to waste!"

We rushed to the ladder that led to the Scanner Room and climbed down. When ANAX saw that the three of us were in the Scanners, he launched the Virtualization process.

"Transfer, Brittany ... Transfer, Alyssa ... Transfer, Sammy."

The doors to the Scanners closed and they began to hum as power flowed through them. ANAX entered the coordinates or the Tower, and got ready for the next step.

"Scanner, Brittany ... Scanner, Alyssa ... Scanner, Sammy."

The magnetic waves lifted out bodies into the air, and I knew that the SuperComputer had already recognized out DNA and was constructing out Digital Avatars for our use.

When the Scan was finished, ANAX launched the final command, "Virtualization!"

A wave of intense light hit me, and I lost all sight when my atoms were dispelled.

* * *

><p>I regained consciousness to the sensation of falling. My body instinctively reacted, making sure that I landed safely. Where my feet impacted, a small cloud of blue digital dust lingered.<p>

"And here are your vehicles," ANAX told us as their structures formed.

When they had fully materialized, we hopped on and flew toward the Tower. The shrieks of Tarantulas informed us of who we were fighting this round.

"Looks like XANA's not really up to snuff today," I said. "There's only three Tarantulas guarding the Tower."

"The SpikeSaurs are on their way," ANAX told us. "It won't be long until they get here, and those Tarantulas won't stand a chance."

"Good," Brittany said. "'Cause we don't have a lot of time."

As we zoomed into range, our digital engines roaring, the Tarantulas opened fire. Our tight formation split into three paths as we dodged the lasers.

We were matched one to one for this battle, but once ANAX's reinforcements arrived, we could deactivate the Tower.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Alyssa fall off of her OverGlide. It crashed to the ground just after she did.

I zoomed down to help her, but as I did, a Tarantula made a lucky shot. The laser penetrated the most code-dense part of my vehicle – the engine – and destroyed it. Like a cat always does, I landed on my feet.

Alyssa was on her feet as well now, and doing her best to block the Tarantula's fire with her Energy Fields. I ran to her side to help defend.

Brittany flew above us on her OverWing, and she threw a fan down at one of the monsters.

Hearing the fan's signature noise, a Tarantula looked up, fired a shot at the fan, and caused it to miss.

"Rats!" Brittany exclaimed from above.

I caught several laser blasts on the edges of my claws and leaped into the air. I only soared up about 10 feet, just enough to make sure I was on top of the Tarantula. As I crashed down on its narrow head, I scrabbled with my cat-claws to get a grip. I had sheathed my laser claws when I jumped through the air.

Before I could establish myself, the monster shook me off. I landed hard.

I watched as Brittany swooped low on her OverWing and tried to pick up her fallen fan. As she did so, one of the Tarantulas launched a flurry of lasers in her direction. And then one impacted.

The virtual velocity of the bolt reacted with Brittany's Lyoko Avatar and Lyoko's set properties of kinetics, and threw her off her vehicle. The corrosive properties of the laser took its toll, and my LI informed me that Brittany was down 20 Life Points. With the damage received, her Avatar was less stable, and when 80 more Life Points of damage were taken, the SuperComputer would end her stay here.

The OverWing continued on its last given path, Brittany's ability to control it with her mind lost due to the lack of contact. It skidded across the digital ground, reacting with Lyoko friction engine. This produced energy, and that energy was too much for the OverWing to take. It disintegrated quickly, fading first to its fundamental structure before disappearing altogether.

I made a mental note to improve the capacity of the vehicles some time.

In the meantime, Brittany had recovered her fan and was now dueling with the Tarantula that had knocked her off. She cartwheeled around, dodging the lasers.

It was then that I heard what I was waiting for, "Need a hand?" Vine asked from behind me. "Or maybe a claw?"

"Yeah," I said. "We could do with a few of those!"

"Then let's get to it," Shadow said in his usual quiet tone.

It is completely pointless to record how quickly the Tarantulas fell to the might of the three SpikeSaurs. But just when we thought this battle was over, something reset the playing field.

As we approached the Tower – Alyssa, Brittany, and I – I noticed an unusual amount of digital energy surrounding the Tower.

My confusion must have showed on my face, because ANAX said, "I see it too. We need to go carefully."

We stopped just in front of the Tower. It was dead quiet, not a sound could be heard. The stillness of the air that usually seemed normal on Lyoko now felt creepy. Something was going on.

"Do you feel that?" Brittany asked. A faint pulse was moving through the air. It sounded like it was from my mind's ear, not the world around me. But I still felt it perfectly. It seemed as if my digital structure had aligned itself with this slow, ominous beat.

Then we felt a sensation that we had never felt before on Lyoko: Wind. There was no air on Lyoko, so the feeling was not real. I quickly deduced that the Tower was drawing energy to itself, and for an unexplainable reason, we could feel this change.

"We might as well enter the Tower," Alyssa said. "We're not getting anything done by standing here."

As I attempted to phase into the Tower, I was scared of what I might find on the other side. What I didn't count on was that I might not be allowed into the Tower at all.

When my body was halfway in, I was shot backwards like a Laser Arrow. I flew a good 50 feet before crashing to the ground, judging by my radar.

There was no way to enter this Tower.

* * *

><p>Sean hugged the bark of the tree he and Tennent were hiding in. So far, they had managed to stay safe from the water monster.<p>

"D'you think we've lost him?" Tennent asked from another branch.

"I doubt it," Sean told him. "XANA is never this easy to fool."

Tennent grunted his agreement.

It was starting to get dark, and that made the water that much colder.

* * *

><p>"I don't understand it!" Alyssa exclaimed. "Why won't the tower let us in?"<p>

It was clear that she wasn't expecting an answer. We sat around for about five minutes while I fiddled with my LI, searching for a solution. My efforts returned void.

The energy levels were constant now, so it that was good, but they were still too high. I didn't like it.

Suddenly, we heard the screech of a Slyther. No monsters appeared on my scanner.

"What's going on?" Brittany asked as the screech sounded again.

Then the ground started shaking. "I have no idea!" I replied frantically.

Cries of Mantas, Tarantulas, and Krabs soon joined the spooky chorus. The energy levels were off that chart!

"We have to do something!" I yelled.

"I know what to do!" ANAX said.

"What?" Alyssa asked.

"No time to explain! You'll have to trust me on this!"

"Is it risky?" I asked.

"You have to trust me!"

"Go for it! Things are getting crazy!" I yelled.

At that moment, a giant crack was heard, and the Scyphozoa floated into view. This actually scared me, in spite of our shield program. Such a dramatic entrance seemed to indicate that XANA knew the shield was useless. I didn't like that.

Suddenly, ANAX launched his virus, and the world exploded into blinding brightness.

All sound ceased, and I felt cold ice hit my back. I had fallen over. When the blaze of light faded, I was amazed. The Tower was deactivated, the Scyphozoa had disappeared, and the monster noises had stopped.

I also noticed that Vine, Sky, and Shadow had vanished as well.

_What had just happened? _I asked inside my head.

* * *

><p>"It looks like he spotted us!" Tennent warned.<p>

"Yup," Sean agreed. "Time to leave this tree."

The water monstrosity hurled itself after them, quickly catching up. When it reached them, it flew into the air and crashed down on them, forming a bubble of electrified water around them.

The static shocks were harder to bear, given the lack of oxygen. Tennent knew that they wouldn't last long.

When he thought his lungs might burst, the water around him collapsed into a puddle. The electricity left too.

As he fell to the ground, gasping for breath, he was glad that his friends got the Tower deactivated in time.

"Whew," Sean said when he got his breath back. "That was a close one!"

"You can say that again," Tennent told him.

Sean reached for his phone to call his friends, but it was soaked through.

"Rats," he said. "Out of commission."

"Looks like we'll be walking to the Factory then," Tennent said.

When the boys reached the Lab at long last, they had nearly dried off.

"What happened to you?" Brittany asked Sean.

"We got a little wet. You can thank XANA for that."

"That's why we couldn't call, because of phones got fried," Tennent said.

"Do you think a Return to the Past will be necessary?" ANAX asked.

"It doesn't look like it," Sean answered. "No one saw us, and there was pretty minimal damage."

"Good," I said with a small nod. "The last thing we need now is to give XANA more power."

"What happened on Lyoko?" Tennent asked.

"I'm really not sure," I said. "ANAX, you want to fill us in on that one?"

"Sure." A synthetic sigh flowed through the speakers. I could tell he wasn't happy about the outcome.

"Things were fishy from the moment you all set foot on Lyoko," ANAX began. "Only three Tarantulas were guarding the activated Tower in the Ice Sector. As soon as the SpikeSaurs arrived, they were quickly dealt with. When Alyssa, Brittany, and Sammy tried to enter the Tower, they were barred from entry. A digital force field threw them out."

"What?" Tennent gasped, his gray eyes wide.

"Yes, I don't think that you could understand the details of the structure, but I managed to analyze it and find a weakness. I created a powerful virus to disable the shield, but I didn't calculate the possibility of XANA doing what he did."

"And what was that?" I asked, curious.

"The virus required a large amount of energy to counteract all the power pumped into the field. When I launched it, XANA drew the out of the virus and into the Tower. Immediately, the virus began pulling power from both myself and XANA until XANA allowed it to accomplish its purpose. Both of us now possess less than half the power we previously did."

"Woah..." Brittany murmured.

"Woah, indeed," ANAX said. "I had significantly less power than XANA to begin with, so now I don't have the energy to create Droids any more. It is likely, however, that XANA will have retained this ability."

"But we'll never be able to fight past hordes of monsters on our own!" Alyssa wailed.

"Hey," Tennent said comfortingly. "XANA's lost power too! He probably can't make as many monsters, right, ANAX?"

"That's correct, Tennent. I doubt he'll be able to summon Hannah or Slythers for a while. And the monsters he can make will be few in number."

"Well that's good to know," Sean muttered.

"So how long 'till your power recharges, ANAX?" Brittany inquired.

I winced at that question. I had already worked the answer out.

"It will grieve you to hear this, Brittany, but my power will not recharge. I have no outside source of energy like XANA does. I do not even understand yet where XANA's power comes from."

"Oh, no!" Alyssa cried. "Eventually XANA will get his power back, and you won't! That means that XANA can just crush us with 100 monsters at once!"

"There's no need to get so upset," ANAX said. "There's still some good news."

My friends and I brightened slightly. I less than my friends because my hope was leavened by another thought. ANAX still had some work to do on communication skills. He had said that it would grieve Brittany to hear the bad news, but then he said that there was no need to get upset because there was good news as well. I'd have to mention that to him.

"All that power doesn't just disappear," ANAX said in a matter-of-fact tone. "The Tower absorbed the energy, but there's only so much a single Quantum Node can handle."

I knew my friends were confused by that term, so I said, "A Quantum Node is the same thing as a Tower. I'll explain on another day."

"So Lyoko automatically redistributed that energy amongst several Towers in neighboring Sectors. That power still has my digital signature on it, so we can retrieve that power by visiting each of three Towers."

"That's great news!" I said. "So we _do _still have hope!"

"There's always hope."


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

That night was a long one for me. I spent most of it planning with ANAX about what our next steps would be. Between all that, determining which Towers held ANAX's power, and fighting off drowsiness, I had quite a time.

Though it didn't come without reward; we located all the Towers that were needed and formulated several plans of action for how we could deal with certain types of monsters. We made the decision that our first mission would be directly after school tomorrow... or later that day, for me.

I glanced at the clock, noting the earliness of the hour: 4:00 AM.

"Would you care for a lullaby?" ANAX asked me.

"What?" I whisper-shouted in surprise.

"I recently learned that word," ANAX explained. "I'm sure I could find one on the Internet for you."

I was outright speechless for just a few moments at the nature of his question. I tried to be gentle in my refusal, "Well, ANAX, in general, kids who are almost 15 don't ask for lullabies, and I think I would find it more than a bit creepy that a computer program is singing to me."

ANAX let out a soft digital laugh. I liked that laugh. "Alright," he said. "I get the point. Good night."

With that, I closed my eyes and fell asleep.

* * *

><p>Cries of outrage woke me from my sleep.<p>

"Oh, you think this is funny, don't you?" As I became more aware, I identified Jim's voice. Gradually, I became aware of other sounds, like a kid laughing and a cat screeching.

As I walked out the door of my room, I turned my alarm off before it sounded. It was only a minute away from going off, and I was well awake now.

When I entered the hall, I saw Jim chasing Smudge around in tight circles while Tyce looked on, clutching his stomach because he was laughing so hard. After just a few seconds of watching Jim, I found it hard to suppress the giggles.

I also saw several other boys in the hall as well, such as Tennent, Xavier, Danny, and Elijah. All of us still were in out nightclothes, looking quite unkempt – including Jim.

"Get back here you little fur-ball!" He muttered as he tried unsuccessfully to trap the cat. Tennent was the only one not laughing.

"Hey, dude," I asked. "What's the matter?"

"I hope Smudge doesn't get caught!" He anxiously whined.

"Ah, you know Smudge," I reassured him. "He's just having fun messing with Jim, and when he's done, he'll escape out the door and come find you later tonight."

"I hope so. I don't even know how he got out of our room, and why on earth would he wander into Jim's room?"

Little did he know. I found out later that Sean hadn't pulled the door all the way closed, so that prompted the adventurous cat to explore outside.

At the same time, Tyce had laid a generous amount of tuna fish in Jim's bed. Leaving the door cracked as Jim always does, Smudge was attracted to the smell of fish. When he daintily hopped into Jim's bed, he awoke, causing the ruckus we now saw before us.

It seemed though that Smudge had had enough. He bolted for the double doors, presumable going down the stairs and out into the school yard.

"What I wanna know is how that cat managed to get inside this building!" Jim bellowed. "Would any of you happen to know anything about that?" He demanded.

We all shook our heads, knowing perfectly well who the cat belonged to.

"Hmph!" Jim grumbled. "Well I sure don't want to see that scrap of fur again!"

_How funny,_ I thought to myself.

After Jim had left the area to take a shower, Tennent ran, following Smudge's presumed path. In about 5 minutes, he had returned carrying a bundle of black and white fur.

"It's good to know he's safe," I told Tennent.

"Thanks," he replied.

Tennent then walked back to his room to drop Smudge off, and wake Sean, who had slept through the entire episode. I rolled my eyes as the thought hit me.

But all that aside, it was time to face the music.

* * *

><p>School passed quickly for me, but for others, it was a long day. We had a pop quiz in math and we hadn't been studying what the quiz was on for very long. Luckily, I'm a bit ahead in my math, thanks to Lyoko.<p>

When lunch finally arrived, many students were relieved. I decided to use the time to fill in the Lyoko Warriors about the situation.

But as soon as we sat down with our sandwiches, Rachel chose that moment to seat herself at our table. Phillip and Julian were nowhere to be seen.

"So, what's up guys?" She asked.

"Y'know," Sean said after a pause. "You're not really welcome here."

"I'm allowed to sit where I want," she shot back immediately. "I don't care if I'm welcome or not!"

"And there's the problem," Brittany muttered.

"I heard that!"

"I don't care," Brittany said back.

"Look, Rachel," Tennent said. "You're not as great as you think you are."

With that, he got up and left the table. He was soon followed by Sean, Brittany, and then Alyssa. I got up last.

"Geez," Rachel sighed. "I didn't even do anything..."

I shrugged at her. She probably knew there wasn't much sympathy behind my gesture.

But at the same time, I felt bad about how we'd treated her. It was true that she'd done some nasty stuff in the past, but on this occasion, it seemed as if she was just trying to be friendly.

I said as much to my friends.

"Ah," Tennent said, "You're such a big softie, Sammy. You know how Rachel is."

"Yeah, I know, but I don't think we should be so rude to her without cause."

I got some weird looks.

"Okay, okay, I understand that most of Rachel's actions are fueled by ulterior motives, but I don't think we should be so quick to judge her. She may be mean, but maybe she won't be so bad if we let her in our group."

"Can you define, 'ulterior,' Sammy?" Tennent asked me.

I sighed. That wasn't even the point of my last statement. But I humored him. "Ulterior means 'existing beyond what is obvious or admitted.' That means she has another reason for what she's doing that she doesn't make apparent."

"Oh," Tennent replied.

"Just wait," Sean said. "She'll be back to playing tricks again soon."

"Anyway," I said, dismissing the matter. "I've got some news for you all."

"What's that?" Tennent asked through a mouthful chicken and cheese.

"ANAX and I have located the three Towers we need to get power from. We've already set everything up, and we can go get them at our next opportunity."

"That's great!" Brittany exclaimed. "We can hit the first one tonight, then, right?"

"If you feel up to it," I answered. "ANAX and I have even worked out some strategies for fighting the monsters. We might be able to try them out."

"You can keep your strategies, Einstein," Tennent casually told me. "XANA's monsters are no match for my Laser Arrows."

"You sure about that, Tennent?" Sean asked in jest. "I think you might have mistaken those Arrows for my whip. The monsters tremble at the sight of it!"

As Tennent was beginning to form a comeback, Alyssa interrupted them, "This isn't a game, y'know. It's serious."

"Way to kill an argument, Alyssa," Tennent muttered with a dark look. You could tell that he was still joking, though.

"So we'll go tonight, okay?" I asked.

We were all in agreement, so it was settled.

* * *

><p>"Is everyone ready?" I asked into the microphone.<p>

From downstairs in the Scanner room, Sean answered, "We're in position, Sammy."

"Great, I'll launch the process," I said as I sent the command to close the Scanner doors. When the chambers were completely sealed, I could begin virtualizing them.

"Transfer: Sean! ... Transfer: Tennent! ... Scanner: Sean! ... Scanner: Tennent!" The SuperComputer informed me that it had recognized Sean and Tennent, and their Avatars were under construction. It also informed me that the coordinates I had chosen had been recognized.

Before continuing to virtualize myself and the girls, I checked to make sure that Sean and Tennent had made it safely. When I did so, I found that they were all right, but they had appeared at the wrong place!

I had told the computer to bring them up just a few dozen feet from the Tower in the Ice Sector. Instead, they were on the other side of the Sector entirely, with miles between them and the Tower we needed.

"Guys," I said, hoping that my radar was just glitching. "Can you see the Tower?"

"No," Tennent said, "In fact, we're on an Ice Bridge. Didn't you say we'd be on a large flat area?"

"Yeah, I did..." I muttered as I typed away at the keys.

"So what's the deal?" Sean asked. "Why are we not where we were supposed to be?"

A second and a half later, Brittany asked, "Are you going to virtualize us, Sammy?"

"We are experiencing technical difficulties," ANAX said over the speakers. "Let's just wait until we can get some for info."

"Sure, ANAX," Brittany said.

I looked over the logs of the virtualization history. A message popped up.

"What do you mean, 'system error'?" I asked in outrage.

"The SuperComputer returned an error for the coordinates I entered," I announced to the gang.

ANAX - who was much more composed than I was at this point - injected, "It seems as if the SuperComputer has experienced a drop in computing power. This is most likely due to the fact that I am now running off of its power, since my internal energy has been depleted."

"So how do we fix it?" Alyssa asked.

"Well we've got to get ANAX's power back from the Towers. Once we do, he can run on that instead of the SuperComputer's energy."

"So until then," ANAX said, "you can only be virtualized at one given point in each Sector."

"And that's going to modify our strategy, too," I added.

All that out of the way, I materialized the OverBoard and the OverLoad. When they came up, Tennent commented, "It's nice to know the vehicles still work, so we don't have to walk all that way!"

"Yeah," I answered. "But I'm not sure about how long we'll be able to keep that function, since ANAX has to run off the same power that makes them run. So we really need to get this Tower _today_."

"Aye, aye, Captain Einstein!" Tennent said with a salute.

"El-oh-el, Tennent," I answered drily.

After doing one last scan of the screen, I set to virtualizing the rest of our team.

In just a few minutes, we were mounting our vehicles, preparing to take off. As we picked up speed, I checked the HoloMap, and I saw that we had some visitors.

"Hornets, just behind us!" I announced. Normally, the sound of their wings advertised their presence. With the roar of our digital engines, we didn't hear them coming. However, the noise was not so loud that we could not hear the laser bursts.

We all swerved different directions to avoid the fire. I was thankful of that, because at the speed we were travelling, a collision could be fatal.

As we continued our high speed battle, I looked down at my LI to get a count.

"I count seven Hornets!" Brittany said to all of us. She beat me. It didn't matter, though.

Tennent hit the reverse thrust suddenly and dropped behind the flying monsters. Before they realized he had gone, one of them exploded. Tennent was as accurate as ever.

"Nice shot," Sean complemented. "But I bet it's not as good as this!"

Immediately, he launched himself into a backflip off of his OverLoad. While he was still upside down, he lashed out his bright red whip, winding it around the "head" of a Hornet. When he pulled the whip back, the monster was obliterated. He fell precisely onto his vehicle and produced a satisfying rev.

"Beat that," Sean taunted.

Tennent looked over his shoulder, obviously calculating his next move. A few seconds later, he sent the OverBoard soaring straight up into the "air".

Alyssa followed his flight path with her eyes. "Always a competition," she muttered. She swung her OverGlide so that it was facing the Hornets, while still flying in the original direction. It was something special I had programmed for the OverGlide.

Taking one hand off her handles, she formed a pink sphere of energy. After taking careful aim, she released the plasma ball. One less monster.

At this point, Tennent dove down at a crazy angle. He smashed one Hornet outright, and caught another in his claws. Soon, it too, ceased to exist.

Only two Hornets remained.

It seemed as if I was getting left out of the fun, so I decided I'd try something. Killing my accelerator, I dropped behind slightly. I looked up, trying to gauge if I was in the right position. Laser bolts cascaded down on me. Clearly, I was.

After miraculously dodging all the blasts, I used my Lyoko Power and leaped high, right between the two Hornets.

I "unsheathed" my Laser Claws and spun like a top. One Hornet didn't react in time, and my claw sliced right through it.

_Bam_. The shockwave that hit me was little more than Lyoko's laws of kinetic energy reacting with the set laws of mass that corresponded with my Lyoko Envelope. Despite that knowledge, my brain still registered the event as a normal shockwave.

The second Hornet noticed my jump and managed to swerve out of the way. It seemed to go in slow motion as the monster charged up a shot.

I was still in mid-air, and the platform below me was very narrow. An impact at this time could mean a dip in the Digital Sea for me. And I can't say that I really wanted that to happen.

Suddenly, I heard the wonderful noise of Brittany's fan flying through the air. Before the Hornet could get its bolt off, the fan penetrated its digital skin, damaging the code beyond repair.

I managed to land safely on the OverBlaze, and Brittany caught her fan out of the air.

"Thanks," I said, saluting her.

"No problem," She told me.

We continued on our way.

"Round one goes to the Lyoko Warriors," ANAX said. "But I have no doubt that XANA will want a rematch before the day is done."

We traveled in peace for another three minutes before reaching the Tower.

When we arrived, we stepped away from our vehicles, and walked toward the Tower.

"Strange," Sean said. "It's pretty quiet here."

"You know how long that will last," Brittany said.

"Yep. 3...2...1... About now, I'd say."

Right on time, two Tarantulas materialized, crashing to the ground right in front of us.

"Scatter!" Sean shouted.

We split up, running different directions to confuse the monsters. Despite that, they were shooting at us with surprising accuracy. A laser hit me in the back.

Less than half a year ago that we were fighting ANAX and XANA with no back-up, and after just a few months of relying on ANAX to help us, we'd already become too dependent on him.

When I turned around, I checked the LI and saw that I wasn't the only one who lost Life Points. Sean was down 20 as well.

I announced this, and with a wave of his hand, he acknowledged me. With same hand, he flourished his Laser Whip, ready to take on the Tarantulas.

* * *

><p>Sean lashed out his whip when a Tarantula extended an arm, and it caught, its red light blurring the chrome of the blaster.<p>

The monster was stronger than Sean was though, so when the tug of war ensued, the Tarantula won out, ripping the weapon from Sean's hand.

At that moment, Sammy leaped on top of the Tarantula, but that didn't go too well. It reached up and smacked him out of the air, crashing him into a wall of ice where he devirtualized.

"Ouch," Sean commented.

When the Tarantula turned its attention back to him, he rolled out of the way of the lasers. When he came up from his roll, Sean swung his short sword out, but he missed the eye, and only did minimal damage.

The monster gave a jerk and began glowing pink. Shortly thereafter it exploded.

"Hey!" Sean exclaimed. "Cut it out with the cheap shots! Tennent's already got more kills than me, I need to catch up!"

Alyssa smirked. "Is that all you XY chromosomes can think about?"

The remaining Tarantula did not allow for continued conversation.

Sammy's voice echoed out over Lyoko. "How are you guys managing?" he asked.

"Not so great," Tennent replied, who had been fighting the Tarantula since it formed. "What's my health at?"

"20 Points," Sammy replied. "One more hit and it's Game Over for!"

As the Lyoko Warriors closed in on the Tarantula, Tennent jumped onto an outcrop of virtual ice and fired Laser Arrows at his quarry. The Tarantula displayed impressive agility for its kind and avoided the Arrows by bringing itself up to balance on two legs. From that position, it unleashed a flurry lasers.

Tennent ducked and dodged valiantly, but even he couldn't withstand such an onslaught. He – like the other Warriors – was too used to relying on ANAX for cover, or suppressive fire. He collapsed to the ground sending data bits flying off his Digital framework.

Alyssa reached out with her Lyoko Power and dissolved the ground under the Tarantula. It gave a confused whimper as it dropped to its doom.

"Nice job!" Sammy congratulated her.

All of XANA's monsters had been defeated, and the digital energy levels were neutral. He had given up.

"Great show, everyone," ANAX said in a British accent.

"What's with the accent?" Brittany asked.

"Jus' thought I'd loighten the mood," he answered in an Australian tone.

All the Lyoko Warriors laughed, including Tennent and Sammy who were in the Lab. It _was _quite funny to hear ANAX's digitally synthesized voice speaking in anything but his normal refined speech.

"Mood lightened," Sean said through his chuckles.

"Since Sammy was devirtualized," Brittany asked, "how are we going to get what we need from the Tower?"

"Don't worry," Sammy reassured her. "I can instruct you."

"_Me?_" She asked hesitantly.

"Yes, you," Sammy said. "You've had the most experience in working with these Interfaces.

"That was one time," Brittany retorted.

"And that's still more than everyone else," Sammy answered back.

"Alright..." Brittany said.

* * *

><p>A feeling of uncertainty came over me as I stepped into the Tower. I looked down and saw my normally purple jumpsuit tinted a soft blue thanks to the light of the data panels.<p>

I knew what to do, but I decided to ask anyway, just for some reassurance. I had deactivated Towers before, so I was familiar with travelling to the top and pressing my hand to the screen. But that was about the extent of my experience.

"All I have to do is walk to the center, right?" I asked.

"That's right," Sammy answered me. "The Tower will detect your desire to go up and it will take care of everything."

I stepped into the center of the Eye of XANA. _Up, _I commanded mentally. Once I thought that, I began to ascend. I came to a gentle landing at the top platform.

When I walked forward, the interface opened up. It was blank though.

"Just touch the screen twice to open the Interface," ANAX informed me.

"Thanks," I said. Then I reached forward and tapped the holographic screen with two fingers. I was surprised at the static resistance I felt. It had been a while since I'd touched one of those screens.

Code began scrolling upwards on the screen. I knew what some of it meant, but most was Greek.

"So what do I do next?" I asked.

"You're going to want to access the section dealing with the Tower's Digital Energy," Sammy said.

"What does _that_ mean?" I asked incredulously.

"Press the lower-right window to access Tower data. When that screen opens up, there should be a window that is roughly in the middle of the Interface. Click that to bring up energy info."

As ANAX spoke, I moved to follow his directions. When I had finished, I saw what I expected. Several meters recorded power levels, and one aspect was much too high.

I sighed. "Why can't you explain it as concise as ANAX, Sammy?" I complained.

"Sorry," was the sheepish response.

At this, ANAX felt as if he was accomplishing his purpose. He could act as a mediator thanks to his perfect coding. And he had XANA to thank for that. _So good things could come from XANA_, ANAX thought. But he knew that the world would be better off without him.

"Now there should be some sort of error message on the overloaded power core," Sammy said. "Do you see it?"

"Yeah," I pressed a very strange looking symbol. It was big, flashing, and right next to the tallest energy bar, so I knew that it had to be what I was looking for.

Undecipherable characters slid across the screen. "What's going on?" I asked. "I can't read any of this."

"Don't worry," ANAX said. "I'm going to activate the Tower now. Don't do anything until I tell you that I'm ready."

"Sure," I said confidently.

Shortly, a dark blue Eye of ANAX appeared at the bottom of the screen. I guessed I was supposed to click it, but I waited for instruction to do so. It soon came.

"My symbol should now be visible at the bottom of the screen. Press it."

I did, and immediately the dark blue energy bar began shrinking in size. It leveled out, and the error message disappeared.

"Is that it?" I asked, surprised by the anticlimactic nature.

"Yep, we're finished," Sammy said. "I'll bring you back home."

* * *

><p>We emerged from the manhole into the swiftly gathering darkness of dusk.<p>

"Did you see that move I did with the Hornets?" Tennent asked Sean.

"Yeah, I did," Sean replied, "but it was nothing compared to my maneuver."

"Your move may have been fancier, but don't forget that I took out more than twice as many monsters as you! Quantity over quality."

"I thought it was quality over quantity," Sean retorted quietly.

"How about we settle this over a match of Galactic Invaders?" Tennent challenged. "First to 50 kills, usual rules."

"Sniper headshots count double?" Sean asked with a raised eyebrow.

Tennent nodded.

"Melee counts as half?"

"Yep."

"And no use of the PWN-224?"

"I hate to say it, but yes."

"Then you're on!" Sean accepted.

Alyssa and Brittany didn't say anything, but I could tell what they were thinking.

I turned to Sean and Tennent. "I have to see this," I said.

"But I thought you had Jeremy's journal to decode," Tennent said.

"I do," I told him, "but progress has been slow, and I probably would make much more headway without a trip to Sector 5, and we've got our hands full getting ANAX's energy back, and it would be great to be able to find a way to get ANAX's monsters into Sector 5 to give us a hand.

"I'll check in with ANAX to discuss some things, and then I'll join you in the Rec Room. I _have _to see what Tennent does without the PWN-224!"

The three of us laughed.

The PWN-224 was a weapon that you unlocked by entering a cheat-code. It was a sniper, rocket-launcher, and full-auto laser gun all in one... with unlimited ammo. Tennent always used it, so many rules were made against it.

After I checked in with ANAX to review the next mission, I headed over to see Sean and Tennent kill each other.

A few other guys were there with us; Buddy and Luke. They even let me play a couple rounds, but I really got killed because my character was pretty low-level.

In the end, Sean ended up beating Tennent. Tennent called it a draw, since he got more kills than Sean on Lyoko. Despite the fact that this fight was supposed to decide it, Sean let it go. Good old Sean.

Even with the matter settled, we saw no reason to stop playing, so we blasted all sorts of alien invaders until 9:30 PM, our official bedtime.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

I was floating. Everything was peaceful. The breeze was warm, but the water was cool; it felt like summer. Birds were chirping in the distance, and that was the only sound save the wind stirring the water.

Suddenly, the sun was obscured, and a shadow fell over me. Hit by a frigidly cold wind, I looked around, now more cautious. The shadow passed and the warm sunlight returned. But all was not the same; now the world was completely silent.

I got out of the pool and dried off, squeezing the water from my bright yellow and white swim trunks. After throwing a white shirt on, I explored away from the pool. I realized then that I had never seen this place before.

Tall plants stretched in front of me, but I easily pushed them aside. I could hear a harsh noise that was quickly getting louder. The best I could describe it would be like the sound of an engine.

When I pushed my way out of the shrubbery, a vast desert lay before me. _Wow, _I thought. I was getting ready to go back to my quite little swimming pool when something stopped me. A massive explosion rocked the ground just a few feet away!

I flew through the air and it looked like I was going to make a nasty landing, but my Lyoko reflexes allowed me a smooth one. Before the dust had settled, a massive tank drove past me. Men in futuristic armor rushed after it, and I got caught up in the flow.

I recognized an officer by his insignia. "What's your name and rank?" He asked in a rough voice. "And why are you out of uniform, soldier?"

"Tennent Della Robbia reporting for duty, _sir! _I have no rank – I'm not in the military."

"Well you are today, son," He told me. "Today, it's kill or be killed. The Kyrsh Aliens are attacking!"

_Hmm, _I thought. _The Kyrsh Aliens are the bad guys in Galactic Invaders! Too cool!_

A sergeant handed me an auto-rifle. "You know how to shoot kid?"

I never got to answer him. A Kyrsh warship swung in low and peppered us with lasers. That was the last I saw of the sarge.

The commander was shouting orders that I didn't understand. The rest of our company clearly did as they fell into a purposeful battle position. Before I could even wonder what to do, a line of melee Aliens crashed into their defenses.

About half of them were cut down, but a lot still made it through. I found myself in a firefight!

I slotted three aliens before a small package landed next to me. I started beeping like crazy. Then I realized that it must be a mine.

It was too late, though. It blew up, and I found myself soaring through the air again.

"Aaagh!" I screamed. When I opened my eyes, I saw a wall rushing at me. Instinctively, I rolled my body so my feet hit the wall first, and I propelled myself into a somersault on the ground next to my bed.

My alarm was going off, and Sean was looking at me from his bed with a grumpy look on his face. I looked back sheepishly.

* * *

><p>"Good morning, lazy bones," ANAX greeted me. "You'll be glad to know that while you were sleeping the night away, I developed a new program for decoding Jeremy's journal. I can try it after you get some more energy from another Tower, hm?"<p>

"That's great ANAX," I said, still groggy. "We can run it after we take care of a Tower today."

As I made my bed and got dressed, I said, "Let's have a look at it."

I sat down at my computer and instantly the program popped up. ANAX had everything covered.

As I reviewed the program, a knock sounded at my door. "Come in," I called.

Sean and Tennent stepped into the room. "Just makin' sure you're awake, Einstein," Sean said.

"Oh, I'm awake," I assured them.

"Watcha working on?" Tennent asked.

"ANAX has come up with a program that he thinks will crack Jeremy's journal," I answered.

"Well let's hope it works," Sean said. "You've spent quite a while working on that."

"Anyway," Tennent said, "we're going to breakfast."

_Rats, _I thought. _Is it that late already? _A look at the clock confirmed that it was. Breakfast started in just 3 minutes. Mrs. Tyler probably had it already cooked.

"Go without me," I said. "I'll catch up as soon as I take a shower."

Tennent needed no further encouragement. He walked out of the room with a "'Bye," over his shoulder.

"See you there," Sean told me.

I addressed ANAX, "The program looks good," I told him. "But I've got to go now."

"Then I will meet you in the Factory later today," he said.

I closed the program and went and took a shower. I was not surprised when I didn't see anyone there. I finished quickly and headed off to the cafeteria.

When I got there, I saw that all my friends were there already, eating cereal.

"What's the deal?" I asked. "I thought we were having pancakes."

"We were!" Tennent sounded sullen. "The griddle is busted. There was an electrical short-circuit, so we couldn't have pancakes."

"Bummer," said with the slightest hint of a grin.

"I bet XANA's to blame for this..." Tennent muttered. His complaint went unaddressed.

I grabbed a bowl and filled it with some type of fruity cereal. I picked up a carton of milk and navigated back to our table. As I sat down, I flipped my head to get my hair out of my eyes. Then I poured my milk.

"Nice hair," Alyssa commented. "Is it about time for a haircut?"

"Maybe," I shrugged as I crunched.

She smiled. I didn't know why though.

"So," I said. "Today, we should go after the Tower in the Mountain Sector. I found that we still don't have enough energy to put you directly in front of the Tower, but the journey won't be as long as yesterday's."

"That's a relief," Brittany said. "The less time XANA has to attack us, the better."

"I hope this doesn't take long, Sammy," Sean said. "I've got some studying to do."

"Don't worry," I said. "If XANA doesn't go berserker mode on us, you should have plenty of time later tonight."

"Sometimes," Sean said with a bit of an attitude, "being a hero is a real pain."

No one could disagree with him. We ate in silence for a few minutes.

Tennent informed us of his dream, and his reaction. I found it encouraging that he was able to react so well; it meant we could (hopefully) counter XANA's attacks better.

"That'll teach you to stay up late playing video games," Brittany commented. There was no doubt that his dream was caused by our game of Galactic Invaders.

After we had finished our meal, we walked as one to our first class: Math. Fun for me, not for the rest of our group.

* * *

><p>School passed by slowly. I spent most of my time worrying that there would be some sort of XANA attack, but it was wasted energy. Eventually, fourth period came and it was time for Health class.<p>

I walked in and set my books down on my desk. I had to flick my hair out of my eyes again.

"Ah-hem," Mr. Patricks coughed in my direction.

"Yes, sir?" I asked.

"When your hair is long enough to obscure your eyes, I believe it's time to have it cut, don't you?"

I was slightly confused by this. For one, there was nothing in the school dress code about hair length. The only requirement on hair was that it should be kept clean. For two, Patricks was usually the last teacher to nitpick about any type of regulation.

"Yes, sir," I answered him. I made a mental note to go into town and get it cut.

Mr. Patricks looked me directly in the eyes for a few seconds.

"Good," he said. "Your eyes are the windows into your soul, son. Don't forget that."

A chill went down my spine. I was sure my eyes were blazing orange by this point. It was amazing that he hadn't noticed.

After the moment had passed, I turned my head to see Alyssa sitting in a nearby seat.

"Told you," she mouthed silently. I rolled my eyes at her, and she giggled quietly.

After we'd learned about our digestive systems, we could then use them to eat lunch.

* * *

><p>"I wonder what's for lunch," Tennent said idly.<p>

"Can you think about anything but food?" Sean asked.

Tennent didn't answer him. It didn't look like he was in the mood for a verbal joust with Sean.

His curiosity was satisfied when we walked into the lunch room; we saw lines of chicken sandwiches waiting for us.

"Alright!" Tennent exclaimed with a fist pump.

The rest of the day passed without notable occurrence. But an interesting encounter took place on my way to the Factory.

After dropping my gear off at my room, I headed off into the woods.

* * *

><p>Caleb Torrent didn't go to the Middle School side of campus much. Generally, he chose to keep to the High School side. Today though, he was feeling a little nostalgic, and decided to revisit the old location. He was joined by two friends of his, Josh Hunter and Katie Gold.<p>

They took the path through the woods that would put them out at the ancient Administration Building.

"It's been a long time, hasn't it, Caleb," Josh asked. As 12th graders, it had four years since they'd been middle-schoolers.

"It sure has, old buddy," Caleb replied.

"While we're over here," Katie asked, "you wanna check out the new building that's under construction? I hear it's almost finished."

"Sure, why not," Caleb shrugged.

"It'll be nice to see who's got the better facilities," Josh said with a grin. "Us, or the middies."

"Hah," Katie said. "I don't think they can outclass the student area we've got."

"Well we'll see, won't we?" Caleb said.

Just then, a boy with an orange sweat-shirt crashed into Caleb. He had brown hair that was just a bit too long and he wore glasses.

"Sorry," he apologized. "I didn't see you there."

He made as if to continue barreling down the forest path.

Josh grabbed his arm. "Where are you going in such a hurry?" He asked.

"That's my business," the kid snapped back.

"Actually," Caleb said, looking down on him, "given your reaction, I think it _is _our business what you're doing."

The boy was tall- only a few inches shorter than Caleb. Because of that, he met his eyes steadily.

"What's your name?" Caleb asked.

"Sammy."

_There's something strange about him, _Caleb thought. _But I can't put my finger on it..._

"C'mon, Josh," Katie said. "Don't be a bully, let him go."

"Whatever," Josh said, releasing him. "Just watch yourself, Sammy," he cautioned him.

He ran off. It was the last they saw of him for a while.

Caleb was still musing though. Something was off. _Something about his eyes..._

* * *

><p>After Josh let me go, I sped to the Factory without a look behind me. We had a very limited amount of time to work with, and there was no telling what we'd find on Lyoko this time. It would be just like XANA to pull a fast one.<p>

Despite my delay, I was the first one to reach the Lab. ANAX greeted me as I hopped in the chair.

"Hey, back," I said.

"I presume your friends will soon arrive?"

"I hope so," I told him.

I fiddled with the programs for a bit, but I wasn't really doing much.

Minutes passed, and I was getting pretty bored. I was getting ready to give a call when I heard the elevator kick into motion.

Seconds later, Brittany, Alyssa, and Tennent stepped out.

"Hey, guys," I said with a wave. "Where's Sean?" I asked.

"Studying," was Tennent's one word response.

"He looked at all the work he had to do and decided that he wouldn't have time if he went to Lyoko with us," Brittany expounded.

"Oh, okay," I said. "Shame," I went on, "he's a real help on Lyoko."

"But we'll have to do without him," Alyssa said diplomatically.

"Right," I nodded. "Get to the Scanners; I'll virtualize you."

Tennent hit the BRB – Big Red Button – that sent the elevator down a floor. He gave me a casual salute as the door closed, and I returned it.

I began setting up the transfers, configuring the Scanners to their specific DNA, and selecting a destination. With some power restored, we had more options in that area, but it was far less than satisfactory. But of course, we were the Lyoko Warriors. _We can do anything, _I thought.

"Transfer: Brittany ... Transfer: Alyssa ... Transfer: Tennent." I entered the command that said to close the Scanners' doors and read the data I had put in. I let the process take its course.

"Scanner: Brittany ... Scanner: Alyssa ... Scanner: Tennent." I knew that with this step engaged, my friends would now be spinning through the air as the SuperComputer analyzed their genetic structure.

A window popped up, notifying me that the process was complete. The computer automatically selected my desired action, and I could indicate that it was okay to proceed by pressing the Enter key.

I did so, and power rushed into the Scanners, activating the magnetic flux. I monitored the power levels on the Scanners and I saw that it was all green – normal.

"It's alright, Sammy," Brittany's voice echoed through the speakers. "We're in the Mountain Sector."

"That's great!" I was relieved that XANA had decided not to throw a monkey wrench into the works. "Wait up, I'll be there momentarily."

I climbed down the ladder to the Scanner Room. When I was in position, ANAX virtualized me.

The Scanners disassembled my atoms and I lost consciousness. When I regained it, I saw the hazy purple, mountainous background. Soon, solid virtual mass entered my vision.

I adjusted my specs so that they laid right. I thought it was strange that Lyoko's sub-coding had chosen not to fix my poor vision, and had given me glasses like in the real world. I could still see without them, just like on Earth, but I saw much more detail with my glasses, both on Earth and Lyoko.

"Right," ANAX said. "Ready to go?"

"Once we get some vehicles-" Tennent was cut off as ANAX materialized said vehicles.

"You were saying?"

"Nothing," Tennent said with a smile. "Thanks, ANAX."

As I boarded, I noted that having ANAX around almost made the LI overkill. But it was still useful- ANAX could do everything. Yet.

For example, as we were flying, the LI began beeping at me. I looked down and saw that Krabs were materializing.

"Krabs up ahead!" I warned. Even as the words came out of my digital mouth, the Krabs' virtual structures began to form. They dropped to the ground and immediately began firing.

There were four of them. Only a few seconds into the fight, one of them scored a hit on the OverGlide. Alyssa plummeted when her vehicle had finished dematerializing.

"Aaah!" She screamed in surprise as she dropped out of the air. I zoomed down off of my flight pattern to try and help her.

She noticed my movement and waved me off with her arm. "Go without me! I can hold a couple of them off!"

She was confident, so I only hesitated a moment before flying back to the path. I looked over my shoulder and saw that two Krabs had engaged Alyssa, while the other two followed Brittany, Tennent and I.

* * *

><p>Alyssa ducked out of the way of the first flurry of laser blasts. She looked up and saw that her friends had managed to get back on the path to the Tower.<p>

She turned 90 degrees and fired and Energy Field at a looming Krab. It shifted out of the way, but it didn't react fast enough to dodge a second pink sphere. Pink energy coated the monster and scrambled its coding to such a point that it detonated.

_One down, one to go, _Alyssa thought.

She couldn't see the other Krab out of her peripheral vision. As she spun around to look, a laser hit her in the arm. As the force threw her to the ground, she clutched her sizzling appendage.

"You've got 70 Life Points left," Sammy warned her. "Watch it!"

Alyssa got up and dusted herself off. "You're gonna have to pay for that one," She said to the Krab.

"Come get some," the monster taunted. Alyssa was momentarily distracted. Monsters didn't speak often.

In that second, the Krab charged and fired another shot with a flare in the shape of XANA's eye.

The bolt hit Alyssa full in the chest and she was slammed backwards yet again.

The Krab made its trademarked growling noise that was a challenge in any language. Alyssa jumped forward and rolled. She righted herself underneath the Krabs wide body and fired an Energy Field straight up.

The Krab soon met the same fate its companion had.

"Nice shot, Alyssa," Sammy complemented.

"Thanks."

"You've got 55 Life Points left, and it's about a 3 minute run to the Tower. We're right in front of it now."

Alyssa set off, sprinting. She was grateful that she couldn't expend energy running, and thus she would get to her destination quicker and still be ready to fight.

* * *

><p>A minute ago, we were ducking and weaving to avoid the Krabs' lasers. Tennent swung a sharp U-turn and fired three Laser Arrows. They all found their mark, and the Krab spasmodically twitched before exploding.<p>

"Epic win!" Tennent called out.

I saw that I was directly above a Krab. _My turn, _I thought.

I cut my repulsor engines and dropped like a rock. When I was within range, I extended my glowing green claws to slash at the top of the Krab.

It looked up and fired a laser at me and it glanced off my shoulder. This put me off balance and my claws scraped along the monster's shell instead of their intended target. It took some damage, but it was still alive and kicking.

"Rats!" I said as I gained altitude again. "That was sloppy."

Brittany checked over her shoulder and threw a fan precisely. Her aim was dead on, and she caught the fan as it flew back to her just before the Krab blew up.

"Don't worry, about it," She said with a wink. As she flew up to Tennent's OverBoard, they high-fived.

At this point, I noticed Alyssa had dispatched the last Krab, and I gave her my instructions. Just under a minute later, we arrived at the Tower.

"Last stop," Tennent said, "Everybody off!"

Before either I or Brittany could comment on his joke, Alyssa's voice came in through the speakers on my LI.

"Oh no!" She said. "The Scyphozoa's here! Help!"

"Oh man!" Tennent exclaimed. "We'd better hurry!"

We swung our vehicles around and sped off to Alyssa's aid. It was stupid for us to have left her on her own like that. I didn't want to think about what would happen if the Scyphozoa got its tentacles on Alyssa's Lyoko Data. I didn't know why XANA wanted it, but I knew it had to be bad.

When she was in sight, the Scyphozoa had already captured her. XANA – that rat – had already managed to destroy the firewall I had created on our Lyoko Avatars. He must have updated the Scyphozoa's coding. I couldn't believe I'd spent all that time programming it for this.

Tennent fired a few Laser Arrows and Brittany threw a fan, but the Scyphozoa dodged both of the attacks. _While _copying Alyssa's data. The new Skippy was a lot more powerful than the last one. Jeremy had recorded in his journal that it could not move while it had Aelita.

As I zoomed in close, I saw my opportunity. I flashed out my claws and cut the tentacles that secured Alyssa in place. With nothing holding her, she dropped from its grasp.

I pushed the OverBlaze into a nosedive and twisted it around to catch Alyssa as she fell. She was pretty disoriented and it was likely that she would have taken damage had she landed on the ground. But she didn't have anything to worry about; I caught her in time.

Defeated for now, the Scyphozoa floated away with a screech of protest.

I looked back and saw that Alyssa was regaining her senses.

"Thanks," she said to me.

"Don't mention it," I said back. "Now hang on!"

She put her arms around my waist so that she wouldn't fall off the vehicle. In no time at all, the four of us were back at the required Tower.

We dismounted and approached the Tower.

"Strange," Tennent said. "Are you detecting anything on your screen, Einstein?"

"Nope," I said. "It's really weird. I can't see why XANA wouldn't want a party guarding the Tower itself."

"Oh well," Brittany said, walking forward. "Less trouble for us."

"Watch out!" ANAX called suddenly. At that instant, the energy levels on the LI spiked.

Brittany stopped, but it was too late - a sphere of red energy pulsed out from the Tower, and when it engulfed her, she pixelated.

When the wave subsided, Brittany stood rigidly in the position she was when it hit her. "I can't move!" She grunted. A couple seconds later, the SuperComputer detected enough damage to her Lyoko Envelope that it decompiled it and reassembled her body in the Scanner.

A bit of digital dust and a virtual structure was all that was left to indicate Brittany's past presence on Lyoko, and even that soon blinked out.

"Holy cow, what just happened?" Tennent asked in surprise.

"XANA's set up a cloaked force field around the Tower," ANAX explained. "It activates when you step into its range."

"Bummer," Alyssa complained.

"I've analyzed the structure. I can disable it, but I'll need some data from Sector 5."

"How'd you calculate it that fast?" I asked in disbelief. A few more seconds of scanning the code revealed what ANAX had observed, but normally I was quicker than he was on such topics.

"I updated my coding a bit," he explained. "Now I can process different kinds of data faster than normal. I did a good job, right?"

I detected a hint of a laugh in his voice, as if he enjoyed outdoing me. I didn't address it though.

"Right then," I said. "We should get moving."

Tennent sighed.

"I'd better call Sean," I decided. "We could use his help in Sector 5." I dialed his number, and he answered promptly.

"What is it?" He asked. I was sure that he recognized that I was calling him from Lyoko. He had the number set in his phone.

"We've run into some problems," I explained. "XANA's got a force field around the Tower and we need to go to Sector 5 to deactivate it. Brittany's been devirtualized and Alyssa's down to 55 Life Points. We sure could use your help." I avoided giving him a direct order. I had no doubt that he would follow it, but I refrained from testing his patience when he was already strained from his work.

"Okay, I'll be right over," He said. I heard the rustling of paper as he shoved his work aside.

"We'll wait for you at the edge of the Mountain Sector," I told him. "Try to hurry!"

"Will do. Ten-four."

He hung up. "Okay, that's taken care of," I said.

"Now let's get moving," Tennent said impatiently.

"Alright, alright," I said. "No rush. It'll take at least 10 minutes for Sean to get here and that's more than enough to make it to the edge of the Sector."

Under normal conditions, we would have suspected an entourage to escort us to the edge. But seeing as XANA had decreased in power it was unlikely. Besides, ANAX and I had deduced that it took less energy for XANA to make Creepers than any other monster. We didn't understand why though.

We encountered to trouble in the entire journey. I was right; XANA would rather hit us with everything he had in Sector 5, where he got more bang for his buck.

After a few minutes of waiting, Brittany's voice sounded over Lyoko. "I hear the elevator running," she said. "Sean should be there soon."

"I can hear you, y'know," Sean said. The elevator was wired with both microphones and speakers, and right now I had all of them turned on. It was possible to set it so that your voice would only project into a certain room, or only on Lyoko. But I usually left that feature offline.

"I'll virtualize you," ANAX said. "Get into a Scanner."

Sean did so promptly, and he was soon on Lyoko. A minute and half later, he had covered the distance between us.

"Just couldn't do without me, could you?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Nope," Tennent answered. "XANA's monsters just love us too much, so we need another person to help share the load."

"Oh, ha-ha," Sean said, "Very funny."

"It's my job," Tennent said simply.

"Okay, cut the chatter, guys," I told them. "I'm entering the code: Scipio."

When I had done that, a perfectly white sphere with a blue eye of XANA appeared to take us to Carthage. I shut my eyes to block out some of the disorienting effects of the trip. I was starting to feel dizzy.

_Ugh..._

* * *

><p>The transporter touched down and let us off. Tennent staggered around comically, clutching his stomach. "I don't feel so great," he murmured.<p>

"The wall should be opening soon," Sean said.

"And we better be ready," I cautioned. "Just over three minutes to hit the key, and I'm sure XANA's got a few bouncers at the door."

A gap opened up in the deep blue wall of the Arena and we slipped through the bright light with a barely audible digital _beep._

As soon as we emerged from the long hallway, we were greeted by at least a dozen Creepers, placed haphazardly across the Core Zone, which looked like a very disorganized jumble of blue blocks this time. At least there weren't any gaps were you could fall to your doom.

"Wow," Tennent commented, "things are pretty creepy around here!"

Jokes aside, he fired a Laser Arrow at one of the monsters and scored a hit. One of its buddies returned fire.

We quickly found ourselves in a massive firefight!

I aimed up a rocket at a Creeper on the other side of the room. I released it and it flew to its destination.

I hadn't aimed the shot expertly, but it was close enough. It hit the wall and the explosion engulfed the Creeper I had been aiming for. When the digital smoke cleared, I saw that my target had been eliminated.

We quickly worked our way through the mass of Creepers; I slashed three of them, myself. By the end, each of us lost 40 Life Points, except for Sean who lost 80.

I thought all the Creepers had been cleared out, but when I turned my head I saw one behind Tennent. "Look out!" I yelled.

The Creeper poked its head over Tennent's shoulder to growl at him. Nonchalantly, Tennent turned his wrist and blasted the monster to smithereens.

"Nice going, everyone!" ANAX complemented us. "Now we've got to get the key!"

_Oh, no! _I thought. I'd totally forgotten, and there was only thirty seconds left on the timer!

"Look, it's over there!" Sean pointed. It was about 20 feet off the ground, so I thought I could manage it in one leap. Thankfully, I was right. With the key deactivated, the room returned to its normal square shape.

We raced through the door that opened at the end of the room, took the elevator and jogged out to the Celestial Dome.

I materialized our vehicles and I got to work. "Okay, ANAX what exactly am I looking for?"

"We want the source code for XANA's firewalls. It should be under the foundation codes," ANAX directed me.

* * *

><p>Sean leaped onto his bike that was in flight mode. As Sammy accessed the database, he scanned the walls for any sign of Mantas. He knew that if he got hit just once, his stay on Lyoko was over. The only comfort in that was that if he got hit, he wouldn't have to worry about falling into the Digital Sea.<p>

XANA didn't change tactics much. Soon, three Flying Mantas appeared.

"Here we go!" Sean said as he took off. He flew high, to get an aerial view of the battle, while Tennent and Alyssa flew low. Tennent fired Laser Arrows upwards, but the Manta dodged out of the way – right into Sean's path.

Sean brandished his whip, destroying the flying menace. _That was a quick kill, _he thought.

Alyssa took out another Manta before Sammy had found what he was looking for.

"I'm done!" Sammy called. "Let's get out of here!"

Tennent pulled up to allow Sammy to jump on. Immediately they were attacked by the remaining Flying Manta.

Tennent was an expert pilot though, and he maneuvered them both the safety. Sean followed them with a last glance at the Manta they left behind.

* * *

><p>With the force field deactivated, I didn't have any problems retrieving the power from the Tower. ANAX and I had managed to corrupt the system, so it would be a while before XANA could try anything like this again.<p>

It was a good feeling, knowing that we were two thirds of the way there. I said as much to my friends, and they agreed.

After I materialized us all, ANAX "debriefed" us. "Great run out there," he said as we lounged in the Lab. "We've only got one Tower left, and hopefully that shouldn't be too much of a problem."

"I hope so too, ANAX," Brittany said.

"Good night," ANAX told us. It was five o'clock, not really time for good night, but ANAX must have known that it was the last time he'd see most of us today.

As we walked back to the Academy, I offered to help Sean and Tennent with their homework. Sean readily accepted, while Tennent made a face. We all had a good laugh at the difference between the two boys.

Friends were great to have.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

It was late evening, almost 9:00. I had finished giving Sean and Tennent a hand with their homework, and was now looking at ANAX's latest program in greater detail. ANAX explained each section of the code for me, and we discussed it.

"So here's something I don't understand, ANAX," I said. "This looks good for stripping the document into its most plain format, but I can't find where it accounts for the integration of Lyoko Data encoding."

The Lyoko elements of the encoding were the entire problem anyway. If this had been coded like any normal coding in today's world, we would have cracked it ages ago. But the problem was that it used Lyoko's information to encode it. Neither of us fully understood how this worked anyway.

And this was probably why XANA had broken my firewall so easily. ANAX and I had messed with DNA coding, but we couldn't figure out how to make it work. If we had been able to use Lyoko DNA Data to _encode _a firewall, it would have helped greatly in _decoding _the journal.

So if ANAX understood this to make his decoding program, why had he not used it when we were making the Scyphozoa defense program? Thus my question.

"I'm not entirely sure how it will work, Sammy," ANAX told me. "If I had a clue as to how the Lyoko encoding works, then we wouldn't be here now."

ANAX directed me to a certain section of the code. "In this sequence, I've included the encryption for the restricted access of the SuperComputer, as well as the information stored in a Tower. I'm hoping that this will compensate for the Lyoko coding."

I picked out one word that I didn't like. "Hoping?" I asked.

"Right," ANAX said. "Like I said, if I had a reasonable knowledge of this subject, we wouldn't be here."

I sat back in my chair and thought for a bit. "Ok, then," I said. "Here's the plan: At our first opportunity, we'll run this program. If it works, then you're awesome, ANAX. If not, the journal should still be laid bare, and we can look at it from a different perspective."

I switched modes. "Remember when you broke into the Core of Lyoko with XANA to steal the Keys?" I asked.

"Yes..." ANAX said with something not unlike a grimace.

"So, in theory, you could do it again?"

"I suppose so. But what would we need that for?"

"With the encryption laid bare, I'm almost positive we can pinpoint the needed data, and take it from the Core."

I quickly made an amendment to my statement, "Not _take,_" I said to ANAX, "Examine." ANAX's primary purpose was to protect Lyoko. It would be very, very bad for me to suggest that ANAX steal data from the Core of Lyoko.

"We can make a carbon copy of the data and use it to decode the journal. I'm certain of it."

"That sounds very feasible," ANAX said with a tone of deep relief.

"A lot of the problem is how distorted the code is. Then there's still the Lyoko data to get around. We can easily see how my program will render the journal in the first Lyoko encryption. Then we'll go with your plan, and figure out how the first Lyoko Warriors defeated XANA."

It was amazing to think about how close we could be!

* * *

><p>Tennent and Sean were getting ready for bed. Their homework was finished, their room was reasonably clean, and it was time for sleep. They walked into the bathroom and put some toothpaste on their brushes.<p>

"Say, why do you think Sammy's so good with History, Geography, Math, and all that stuff, even though he spends so much time working on SuperComputer stuff?" Tennent asked.

"I don't know," Sean replied. "But I see what you mean, you don't need history or geography that much to work Lyoko's programs. Obviously math, though..."

They both shrugged. It hardly mattered to them, because Sammy was going to help them not flunk out of school.

Tennent waved his hand under the faucet to start the water flowing. Instead, the faucet burst off the sink and water sprayed upwards, hitting them both in the face.

"Ack!" Tennent exclaimed as the water surprised him. He covered his face with his arms.

Tyce emerged from his hiding place – behind the wall – to gloat. And laugh. Whatever came first.

He hit a button on a remote in his hand as his laughing settled down. "Great trick, you guys," he said applauding. "Just fabulous."

Sean and Tennent shook their heads, spattering the water from their hair.

"What the heck did you do?" Sean asked.

Without missing a beat, Tyce scooped up the faucet from the ground, pulled a screwdriver out from behind his cape, and put it back in place.

"I got a new gadget from the Internet," Tyce explained. "You like?"

"I bet Alyssa and Brittany don't have to deal with this," Tennent muttered.

* * *

><p>Upstairs on the girls' floor, Alyssa and Brittany were getting ready for bed too. They were feeling pretty tired, so they had decided to take a shower.<p>

"It's kinda scary how fast XANA broke that shield around me, isn't it?" Alyssa asked.

"Yeah," Brittany answered. "Sammy and ANAX worked for a long time on that, and it looked like child's play to XANA. Sometimes I wonder if we really are strong enough to beat him..."

They turned the knob on high heat, and ice cold water streamed out of the showerhead.

"Yikes!" Brittany squealed. The water didn't warm up.

Alyssa shut her water off just before Brittany did. They stalked out of the bathroom with freezing wet hair.

On the way back to their room, Kat came over to them.

"I probably should have told you this earlier, but Rachel used up all the hot water. Sorry!"

"You think?" Brittany asked through clenched teeth. She was in a bad mood.

"I bet Sean and Tennent don't have to deal with this," Alyssa muttered.

* * *

><p>Later that evening, Tennent and Sean were in their room, relaxing before bed.<p>

"You know what I could get off the Internet?" Sean asked to Tennent, an obvious jab at Tyce's latest prank.

"What's that?"

"I could get Einstein to hack into the military data base and get me a minigun. _That _would be fun to wave in Tyce's face."

"Keeping it real, eh, old buddy?"

"You know it."

"Well anyway," Tennent said. "I'll refill Smudge's food bowl and then I'm off to dream-land."

But when Tennent pulled out the box of cat-food, it was empty! "Oh, no!" He cried. "I'm all out of cat-food!"

"Well you'll just have to go buy some more then," Sean said.

"But how am I going to sneak off campus while the stores are still open?"

"Tennent," Sean said with a sigh. "You can be really dense. We leave school grounds _all the time _to go to Lyoko."

"But that's different," Tennent protested. "When we do that, we're going into the woods, and off to the Factory. No one ever goes there. In town, I might run into one of the teachers!"

"Ok, point taken," Sean said, still relaxed. "Just go with Sammy to get his hair cut, and while the barber does his stuff, you go to the pet store."

"Hey," Tennent said. "Good idea!"

"I'm awesome," Sean said. "What do you expect?"

"No," Tennent corrected. "You're a moron."

"_You're _a moron," Sean snapped back.

"Copycat," Tennent said.

"Wussy."

"Schnitzel."

"Llama."

"Bone-head."

"Dork-brain."

"Meatball."

"_Scrawny,_" Sean taunted.

"For the hundredth time, I'm _not 'scrawny,' _I'm _svelte._"

These were well used insults, so Tennent's response was expected. This time, though, Sean didn't say anything back.

"So yeah," Tennent said. "Don't you think we need a new list of insults to banter with?"

"What's wrong with the ones we've got now?" Sean asked.

"Nothing, except they seem kinda overused."

"Well I'll leave it up to your creativity to find better ones," Sean said with a grin.

"Good night, buddy," Tennent said.

"Same to you."

* * *

><p>ANAX and I had spent the rest of the night working on the decoding program. In order to run it, ANAX would activate a Tower, while we went to Sector 5 to transmit data. This would render the code in its most simplified terms.<p>

But getting ANAX's energy back took priority over that, so we'd have to deal with that last Tower first. I went to bed with a feeling of accomplishment.

* * *

><p>Morning came far too quickly. It always seemed to. My alarm blared RapidFflow's latest hit, urging me to get out of bed. I hit the button and went to take a shower.<p>

I found that Sean had beaten me there, while Tennent was probably sleeping in.

"Good morning," I greeted.

Sean acknowledged me with a nod. "So what did you and ANAX spend the night doing?" He asked in a hushed tone.

"I could give you technical details, but I'm sure you wouldn't thank me," I said. "But in a nutshell, we've made _huge _progress towards decoding Jeremy's journal, and it could be completed really soon!"

"The whole thing? All in one blow?"

His surprise was understandable. In the past, I had only managed to decode certain parts, due to the nature of the coding. But with our latest discovery we could do it all at once.

I explained this to him. "Nice job," Sean said. "But maybe I should be congratulating ANAX."

I smiled. "With this, we should be able to find a way to defeat XANA!"

"Yes, but you never know just what XANA has up his virtual sleeve," Sean said darkly.

* * *

><p>The warm smell of pancakes wafted up from my plate. I sat down and tucked in. Pancakes were one of my favorite breakfast foods.<p>

Despite my love for the victual, Tennent was still faster at eating more of them. It wasn't a contest I pursued though.

Through his scarfing, he informed me that he needed to go to town with me.

"Why is that?" I asked.

"Smudge...Ith all out oth foo... *Gulp* So I need... to get thom."

"Your manners are impeccable," I said with heavy sarcasm.

"You _would _be the one to comment on that," he said.

Then there was that famous pause between his joke and when he grinned.

"Anyway," I said. "I've got some more serious new for you all."

To everyone but Sean, this _was _news.

"ANAX conjured up a program that he thought could crack Jeremy's journal. I don't think it will work completely, but because of the format in which his matrix is oriented, I can understand how it will unravel the code to pure Lyoko data, which we can read by accessing the Core of Lyoko."

"So in English, then," Brittany said, "you should be able to decode it soon?"

"Exactly," I replied. "But it's not quite as simple as that. To run the decoding program, ANAX will have to activate a Tower, while we stream data from Sector 5. So we'll have to split our forces, and you never know what XANA could pull."

"We can handle it," Alyssa said. "Don't worry."

As conversation about Lyoko passed, so did the glow of our eyes. It was a good thing.

Caleb Torrent walked into the room, which was a rare occasion, since high-schoolers had their own cafeteria. Apparently, they were out of something, and Caleb had been sent to fetch more.

The high-schoolers didn't have much more than us though; they had separate dorms, cafeteria, and a few classrooms, but other than that, we shared the grounds. That didn't stop a rift from forming between the grades. Mostly, the 9th and 10th graders, still hung around the middle-school side of campus, which was acceptable, but by 11th and 12th grade, most students stayed away. Maybe I'd understand when I got to that age. For now I didn't.

On his way out the door, he locked eyes with me, just like last time. This time, though, my eyes were their normal color, and they weren't glowing. After a brief moment, he walked on. I hoped that that had put his wondering to rest.

School was relatively uneventful, except for my chat with Mr. Patricks. I explained that I was busy last night, and I'd be going to get a haircut today. He seemed pleased by this.

When the final bell rang, Tennent and I both dropped our junk off in the dorm and headed for the school gates.

Jim halted us for an inspection, but thankfully, we had nothing to hide.

"Where do you think you're going?" He asked.

"To get a haircut," I answered. "Mr. Patricks told me to get one."

"Well you sure need it," Jim said. "Della Robbia, do you really have to go with him?" He asked.

"Sure Jim," He said. "It's always nice to have the company of friends, isn't that right?"

"I can't argue with that," Jim said. "After all, you know what they say in the military-"

"We'd rather you not talk about it," Tennent interrupted. Jim's stories and sayings were often more gory than most students cared to listen too.

"Don't waste any time," Jim said. "I want you back here by 4:30. That gives you _more _than enough time. So get going."

"Right away," I said.

Again grateful that we had a legitimate reason, we headed off. It wasn't hard to find our way around the town; everything had a very logical layout. Tennent left me when we reached the pet store, and I carried on to the barber's shop.

"See you in a few!" Tennent said with a wave. I waved back.

Soon I found the shop in the mall and I stepped inside. A bell rang, and something appeared on a computer screen, alerting the workers that someone had been added to the queue. _Fancy, _I thought.

"I'll be right with you," A wizened old man called. I nodded to acknowledge that I had heard him.

He was finishing up with his current customer. In two minutes, I was on the chair.

"So what can I do for you, my boy?" He asked. His nameplate told me that he was called Charlie. He was an older guy with white hair to show for it. He had a bit of stubble as if he needed to shave, and underneath his apron, he wore a plain white collared shirt with jeans.

Tennent swaggered into the room at this point. He sat down, dropped his bag, and a lady approached him. "I'm just here to wait for my buddy," He said.

I turned my attention back to Chaz. "Just try to clean the look up a bit," I said. "Keep the same general style, just shorten it."

"Ok, then, let's get going," he said as he reached for a tool.

He was quick an efficient. I liked that.

As he was cutting, I noted the prices posted on the wall. I assumed mine was just a general cut, and saw that this would run me about seven bucks. I had expected something in that range, so I was glad not to be surprised.

He finished up in less than ten minutes, and I hopped off the chair. As I did so, I noticed out of the corner of my eye that an outlet was sparking.

_Uh, oh! _I thought.

Before I could take action, a smoky black Spectre emerged from the outlet. It flew over to Charlie and quickly possessed him. He fell to the ground as another entity took over his body.

"Aaugh!" He screamed. The next time he screamed, the echo of XANA's voice was there.

"Hurry!" Tennent said over the rising mayhem in the shop. "We've got to get out of here!"

"I'd say so!" I yelled back. The patrons around us were fleeing the store as XANA-fied Charlie sent arcs of electricity after us.

Despite the chaos, we quickly made it outside where XANA followed. I looked over my shoulder and saw that the mall cops were attempting to detain the guy.

_Wow, they work fast, _was my first though. My second was, _But they don't stand a chance against XANA!_

"We'd better get moving while he's delayed!" I said to Tennent.

"That's a given," he explained.

As we shot out of the automatic doors, my phone rang. I picked it up and answered it as a cop slammed into the doors that just closed behind us. Charlie was out the door within the next half-second.

"Hello?" I said into my phone. The number was the Factory's, so it could be any of my friends calling.

"Hi, Sammy," ANAX's voice said.

"Hey," I said back. "What's the deal? Why are you calling me on my phone?"

"Well I thought you might want to know that a Tower has been activated in the Desert Sector," He informed me.

"That's great," I said. "I'd kinda figured that out." I winced as a bolt zapped a little too close for comfort.

"Shall I alert the others to save you some effort?" He asked.

"That'd be great," I told him. "See you on Lyoko."

I hung up.

"Let me guess, he wanted to tell you about the activated Tower?" Tennent said dryly.

"How'd you guess?" I asked.

XANA made a lucky shot and a purple lightning bolt him me between the shoulder blades. I crashed to the ground and Tennent helped me up.

"No time to talk now," Tennent said cheerfully. "I'll return your call and my earliest convenience."

XANA/Charlie had gained quite a bit of ground – he was right behind us!

"Cut the jokes," I said, "we've got to get to the Factory!"

So we ran. But after about a mile, I saw that Tennent was lagging behind, and it wasn't because of XANA's lighting. I was surprised by how little it hurt. But XANA wasn't giving us his full power in the long range shots.

"C'mon, Tennent, keep up!" I yelled back at him. We had all gotten to be good runners thanks to our frequent trips to the Factory, but despite that, I generally had the least stamina of all the Lyoko Warriors. That's why I was so surprised that I had outpaced Tennent.

"This food is really heavy!" He called.

"How much did you buy?" I asked in disbelief.

"Enough to last through the end of the year!" He answered between his gasps.

It _was _a big bag he was carrying.

When XANA pounced on Tennent, that was it. I skidded to a stop and turned around to help him. I jumped into the air and temporarily forgot that I wasn't on Lyoko. Even though I didn't have my special leaping ability, it still ended well. I landed right on XANA/Charlie's head and he began to pixelate.

"Let's go!" I urged Tennent.

He stumbled around for a few seconds, trying to gather up his spilled cat food.

"Ditch the stupid food, man!" I ordered. I was glad he didn't argue.

As we ran away, he protested. "I spent a lot of money on that you know!"

"It doesn't matter," I looked over my shoulder. XANA was recovering quickly. "We can Return to the Past, but we have to get that Tower deactivated!"

Those were the last words we shared before making it to the Factory.

We rushed into the elevator as Charlie jumped off the balcony. The doors closed just in time to save our rear ends.

When the door opened again, I saw that the rest of our gang was already here.

"It's about time," Brittany said.

"Sorry," I said. "The barber who cut my hair is possessed by XANA, and he's probably going to be here in just a few seconds!"

"Minutes," ANAX correct. "I blocked the elevator so he can't go by that route. The next shortest one is about 2 and half minutes journey."

"Thanks," I said.

"No problem."

"So who goes and who stays?" Sean asked. "I volunteer to stay if I'm needed."

"That's great," I said. "And I think I'd better stay on the computer this time. We don't want XANA making it any more difficult than it has to be by rematerializing you guys or something."

"Right, then," Tennent said. "We're ready to go!"

"I'll start up the virtualization process," I said as I sat in my seat.

* * *

><p>Alyssa quickly climbed down the ladder to the Scanner room. She skipped the remaining three rungs and got in one of the Scanners.<p>

"Ready?" Sammy asked over the speakers.

"Ready," she said in sync with Brittany and Tennent.

The doors closed, and she shut her eyes. The Scanner did its stuff and she began to rise into the air and light waves moved up and down her body. Soon, a bright flash caused her to lose all feeling.

When she could feel again, it was the minimal feeling of being on Lyoko. There was no air to feel, but she could feel the ground beneath her feet when she landed. And she could feel heat. Lots of it.

"If the Desert came with an ocean view, it would be a lot more bearable," Tennent said.

While she didn't laugh at his joke, she thought it was true. A little water might cool the place down a bit. But then again, you never could tell with these virtual worlds.

"Here are your vehicles," Sammy said as they materialized. "The Tower is directly north from your position, across a narrow bridge."

The jumped on and took off, leaving dust in their trail.

As they zoomed closer, the Tower came into view. Alyssa noticed the two MegaTanks rolling across the bridge just as Sammy announced them.

They rolled forward and opened up their shells to begin firing. Alyssa swerved to the left to avoid a laser wall and then launched and Energy Field. The MegaTank closed up, but her shot was off target anyway. She zoomed upwards, trying to get better aim.

In the meantime, Tennent zipped towards a MegaTank and pulled up diagonally to avoid its blast. He quickly aimed and fired an arrow, "Laser Arrow!" It thudded into the exact center of its eye.

"Yahoo!" He celebrated when it exploded. He didn't notice when the second MegaTank fired at him.

"Tennent!" Brittany yelled a warning.

"Huh?" Tennent said as he turned around and saw the laser.

The beam hit his OverBoard and destroyed it instantly. And it was a long fall to the ground.

When he landed on Brittany's OverWing instead of the hard digital sand, he was surprised. "Thanks," He said. "Nice catch."

"Don't mention it," Brittany told him. She flew up in a zigzag pattern and then dropped and threw her fans at the same time. The MegaTank didn't know what hit it.

"Nice job!" Sammy said. "But hurry it up! Sean's taking a beating!"

* * *

><p>When XANA's minion showed up, Sean leapt bravely to attack him. There was a fine line between bravery and stupidity, I thought. And XANA's ghosts really seemed to blur that line. The issue was unimportant though, as long as things went alright on the Lyoko side of things.<p>

When Charlie failed to succumb to Sean's first charge, he had to begin dodging. That lasted for about 3 seconds before a punch was landed and Sean ended up on the other side of the room.

"Yikes!" I exclaimed. "Are you okay?"

He got up and dusted himself off. "It's a good thing the Scanners have made us tougher," Sean said. "Because otherwise, I'd be worried. But I think I can handle him."

I didn't say any more as Sean reengaged his enemy. I noticed that Tennent, Alyssa, and Brittany had destroyed the MegaTanks and I congratulated them.

The quickly made it to the Tower, and some Bloks materialized. Four of them, to be exact.

Just as they fell to the ground, one was destroyed by a pinpoint shot made by Alyssa.

* * *

><p>"I wonder why XANA bothers to send Blokheads after us," Tennent said with a confident smirk. As he leaped off and fired a few Arrows, a blue stream that came from a Blok hit him. Ice instantly formed around him, stopping all movement.<p>

When he smashed to the ground, the ice shattered, and the shrapnel damaged him enough for the SuperComputer to bring him back to Earth.

"That's why," Brittany said with a grim look.

"Okay," Alyssa said. "It's three on two, we can do this."

"We'd better," Brittany replied. "Yeeah!" She threw one of her fans and there was little the Blok could do to dodge. _Boom!_

* * *

><p>Sean was lifted into the air and thrown against the wall. A huge amount of electricity poured into him as XANA's puppet cackled. Despite Sean's natural resistance to XANA, he passed out from the volts. That wasn't good.<p>

I gulped as he advanced towards me.

With one last glance at the screen, I jumped out of my seat. There was no point just sitting down and waiting.

Of course, my efforts amounted to naught. At such close range, XANA couldn't miss. He gripped me with his lightning bolts and suspended me in the air as he electrocuted me. _That _hurt. Plenty.

The electricity locked up my joints. There was nothing I could do. I didn't know how long a normal human would last under these conditions, so I didn't have the slightest guess as to how long I could.

My relief came a few moments later when Charlie dropped to the ground as a Spectre floated away from his body and dissipated.

I limped over to the computer and saw that Alyssa had deactivated the Tower. The doors to the elevator opened and I realized that Tennent had been devirtualized.

"I doubt those people at the mall are going to forget what they saw," Tennent prompted.

"Right," I said keying in the codes. "Return to the Past, now."

* * *

><p>We found ourselves back at the breakfast table.<p>

"Nice job out there," I said to Alyssa and Brittany. To anyone who happened to be listening, this would have been a very weird and random statement. Of course, we knew exactly what was going on.

"Yeah," Brittany said. "It seemed like XANA didn't put up much of a fight. We didn't even see the Scyphozoa, which seems to be his whole point in getting us to Lyoko."

"Well he did get a Return to the Past out of it," I reminded. "And I guess his attack was geared more to the Earth side. A few more minutes and Sean and I wouldn't be sitting here."

"Well it's a good thing we came to the rescue, isn't it?" Alyssa asked.

I nodded. I noticed that my hair hung into my eyes again. Alyssa gave me a look. I knew what it meant. _Oh well, _I thought.


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

"Psst!" Tennent whispered. "Sammy!"

I gave no indication that I heard him, but he knew I had, even though my back was to him.

"What's number 4?" He had created some sort of shortened talk that communicated which answer he wanted. He said the shorter the sentence the better.

I quietly sighed as I flipped my paper down under my arm so he could examine my work. I had given him the lecture a thousand times about how he was only hurting himself. Because he'd shown no signs of wishing to do his own work, I obliged. He'd suffer the consequences one day, and you couldn't say I didn't warn him.

After giving him a couple seconds, I flipped my paper back on continued to work.

It was the day after XANA's attack, 1st period. I had gotten my hair cut for the second time and Tennent had stocked up on cat food. Just minutes earlier, Headmaster Dunbar had come on the intercom to tell us that there would be a fire drill sometime today and to be prepared. Many students were hoping that it would come now. It _was _a hard quiz.

So when Tennent whispered, "What's number 5?" I turned my paper again. Tennent seemed confident that he could change my answers enough that Mrs. Morgan wouldn't be able to tell that he'd copied, but still get the right answer.

Seeing as it was such a hard chemistry quiz, I was somewhat pleased that he'd managed to answer the first three on his own. But there was only so much I'd let him get away with.

Mrs. Morgan passed by and we all pretended to be hard at work. I was pretty much done, though.

I let out a _real _sigh as I heard more whispering behind me.

"What's number _6_?"

* * *

><p>"Alright, let's move it!" Jim shouted. "I know you can do better than that, Snow!" Freddy was only just managing to keep on pace with the holographic line that dictated the speed at which the students must travel.<p>

Our gang was quite near the front, as usual, but we were outpaced by a certain Tyce Bowers and Xavier Martin. Stamina and speed were gifts bestowed upon us by the Scanners and Lyoko, but despite that, they were still beating us. It amazed me every time.

When we had finished running the track, Tyce and Xavier were out of breath. We however, were not. _So we have _something _going for us, _I thought.

"Nice run everybody," Jim said, blowing his whistle. "I think you're sufficiently warmed up. Time to get started."

Freddy and several other kids moaned. Their lamentations were understandable. As a former marine, Jim really knew how to push you.

"Alright, everybody, to the wall," Jim ordered. "Belpois, Della Robbia. Get up there!"

_Rats! _I thought. I was no good at was a skill I rarely practiced, so my Lyoko agility would not help me out much here. Especially when Tennent was my opponent.

Jim decided we should make it more interesting. I hate it when he does that. "Last one to the top gets extra push-ups tomorrow! How about it?"

After seeing the positive response from Tennent, he didn't wait to see my negative. "Get in position!" He barked with a grin of expectation.

I would have to find some way to get Jim back...

"Get set! ... Go!"

I jumped as high as I could and grabbed a handhold. I pulled myself up slowly.

_This isn't as hard as I remember, _I thought. I climbed another level, and looked to the side. No one was there! I tilted my head up and saw that Tennent was way ahead of me, and still quickly moving.

_Wow, _I thought. _He's fast!_

About halfway up, I started to lose strength. Tennent finished and the crowd below cheered. I grunted as I pulled myself up another handhold. I wanted to finish, at very least.

At this exact moment, the fire bell went off. _Darn it!_

"Okay, everybody, you know what to do!" Jim ordered.

The class quickly lined up and began to file out of the gym.

"Belpois!" Jim shouted. "What are you doing?"

"I can't get down!" I yelled over the alarm. I couldn't make myself let go from this height. I knew that there were mats, but it's a long distance from my brain to my fingers.

"Go on ahead," Jim commanded the rest of the students. "I'll help Belpois."

"C'mon Sammy!" Jim called to me. "There's a foothold just below you." He wasn't yelling anymore, but he still had to talk pretty loud to be heard over the alarm.

I looked down and shut my eyes. Then I sucked in a breath and reached my foot down. It slipped.

"Aagh!" I cried as I fell. My heels hit the mat and I started to fall backwards. Jim caught me before I fell too far though.

"Thanks," I said.

"No problem, Belpois," Jim said. "Just be glad that this wasn't a _real _fire."

I _was _glad. We quickly exited the building so that we could be counted. After all the procedure was taken care of, we made our way back to the gym. The Lyoko Warriors came up beside me.

"Y'know," Sean said, "if you practice a bit more, then you could get good at that stuff. You've got Lyoko Data in you."

"I _know _that!" I informed him. "Do you think I have time for stuff like that? Between programming and homework and all that?"

"I guess not," Brittany said, "But physEd still counts toward your grades, at least a small amount."

"I think beating XANA is _slightly _more important than a few extra points on my GPA."

"Point taken," Sean said. "But either way, it remains unchanged that you could do it if you committed the time."

I left it at that. He was right anyway.

After we'd finished gym and the rest of school, I was getting ready to go to the Factory.

I sent a text to all the Warriors asking them if they were ready to go. Sean and Tennent's responses came back instantly, both were positive.

Brittany's and Alyssa's took a bit longer. Basically, they couldn't come yet because there were tryouts for the school play.

This was news to me; I hadn't heard any announcements about a play, let alone tryouts. I called Alyssa to figure out what was going on.

"Hey," She said. "What's happening?"

"What's this about a school play?" I asked. "I haven't heard anything."

"It was posted on the announcement screen in the admin building," She explained. "You didn't see it?" She sounded bewildered.

"No, I never noticed it," I told her. I was glad that the Student Hub was close to finished, because it would make such news circulation easier.

"Well anyway," Alyssa told me. "We can't do it today. Didn't you, Sean or Tennent sign up?"

"No," I said bluntly. "Even if we knew about it, we wouldn't want to be in it. Tennent's got his goofing off, Sean's got his attempt at studying, and I've got my programming."

"C'mon, Sammy," She urged me. "It would be fun to do a play together!"

"Maybe for you," I said. "But we _have _to get that Tower – _today_. ANAX needs to get his energy back ASAP so we can decode Jeremy's journal."

"You think you can manage without Brittany and me?" She asked.

"I hope so."

"Good luck," she said. "And if I were you, I'd think about doing that play."

I could have sworn she winked at me.

* * *

><p>In the middle of the forest, Sean's phone rang. "It's Sammy," he said to Tennent.<p>

"What's going on?" He asked as he answered the phone.

"Where are you?" Sammy asked.

"In the woods, why?"

"Okay, carry on to the Factory. Alyssa and Brittany aren't coming today."

"Why not?" Sean asked.

"They've got some play that the school is doing to try out for," Sammy explained. "Apparently, they can't miss it."

"Well that bites," Sean grunted. "It'll be harder with two of our numbers cut."

"Yeah," Sammy replied. "But we've got to try. The sooner ANAX gets his power back, the sooner we can decode Jeremy's journal."

"You're that close?"

"Yeah, with ANAX's power restored, we could be done before the end of the month."

_Two weeks, _Sean noted. It was the 17th of April.

"That's great," He said. "Where are _you_?"

"Uh, in my room," Sammy said. "I'm leaving now. Meet you there."

"Same to you," Sean closed.

He turned to Tennent and asked, "Want the latest?"

"Brittany and Alyssa aren't coming to Lyoko today," Tennent said.

"Yeah, and this mission is pretty important too. Sammy says if we can restore ANAX's power, we can decode Jeremy's journal really soon."

"And that means we can find out how to defeat XANA!" Tennent said triumphantly.

"But that means we should expect maximum resistance from XANA today. Get ready for a fight!"

* * *

><p>"Sammy is coming shortly," ANAX informed Sean and Tennent from the Lab. "I estimate by the position of his phone that he is three minutes away. If you wish, I can go ahead and virtualize you."<p>

"Thanks, but no thanks, ANAX," Tennent said. "We're already down Alyssa and Brittany for this go-round, and we need as many fighters on Lyoko as possible."

"I regret that I am so unable to assist you," ANAX said in a digitally sorrowful voice. "With my power reserves down, I still don't have the energy to create Droids."

"It's no problem," Sean told him, unsure of how to comfort a computer program. "With any luck, today will be the last day we have to go without you."

Several minutes passed and they soon heard the elevator activated. Sammy stepped out of the chamber and greeted them. "Sorry I'm late," He said. "You didn't start the party without me?"

"Nah," Tennent said. "Without a scapegoat, our parties are no fun!"

We all laughed at the joke.

"Okay, time to get serious," I said. "Ready to go, ANAX?" I asked.

"Whenever you are."

* * *

><p>"Virtualization!"<p>

When my synthetic eyes came online, I saw the Forest landscape all around me, with trees stretching tall in every direction.

I pointed in the direction of the Tower and said, "We have to go that way." We were reasonable close, but thanks to that drop in power, we were out of sight range of the Tower.

"How about some taxis?" Tennent asked.

I pressed some holographic keys on the LI's display. "Coming up," I told him.

The vehicles soon materialized and we hopped on. Other than the roar of our virtual engines, we heard nothing.

"It's a bit too quiet," Sean commented.

"Yeah, we'll see how long _that _lasts," I said.

As the Tower slowly grew larger in our vision, I began to experience the feeling that I was being watched. I looked around and didn't see anything. Disturbed, I took a look at my radar.

"Uh, oh!" I said. "We've got company!"

"Where?" Tennent asked as he began to swerve into a battle position.

"On the left! ... And the right! In the trees..."

"Hornets?" Sean asked. "I don't see any?

I checked the digital signature on the LI. "No, they're not Hornets," I told them, "but I don't know what they are. I don't recognize the signal!"

"Neither do I," ANAX put in. "XANA must have created a new kind of monster."

I slowed my OverBlaze down a bit and carefully scanned the trees around me. Upon very close inspection, I noticed serpentine movement.

"Sammy!" Sean yelled. I snapped my eyes back on the road and saw that the path curved to the left sharply. I overreacted, but still managed to make the turn.

"Keep your eyes on the road man, we can't afford to lose you," Sean said.

When we arrived at the Tower, two monsters leaped from both the left and the right into our paths. Something sharp hit me and I fell off my bike. I saw that Sean was sprawled on the virtual ground in like manner. Tennent had dodged the blow, assumedly because he was flying higher than us.

I heard a screech and looked up. Now that I wasn't moving and the monsters were still as well, I had a good look at them.

They were incredibly narrow monsters, perhaps only a foot wide at their shoulders, but at least 15 feet long from nose to tail-tip. More than half of that length was the tail itself. They reminded me of some sort of souped up lizard.

They were mainly a dull green in coloration, though each of their six legs had a brownish tinge. The end of their tails – which I found was what hit me and Sean – had a bright red fringe to them.

On the end of each leg, long, bright green claws extended. On its wedge shaped head, there was a brown XANA's eye.

It opened its mouth to screech again. I covered my ears at the sound. _Those are some sharp teeth! _I thought. Then I realized that it didn't have a laser projector! It couldn't shoot at us!

"Those things are _ugly_!" Tennent complained.

"They look like giant lizards!" Sean added.

And they were _fast. _

"Watch the tails!" ANAX warned. "That's their main attack. They can use their claws to grip the trees, but they'll also hurt you. The red frills at the end of their tails carry some sort of electric charge. 30 Life Points per impact."

"That's rough," I said. "But there's three of us and two of them. We can take 'em."

"Laser Arrow!" Tennent fired and the duel began. The leftmost lizard he was aiming at jerked its head to side just in time to avoid the Arrow. It still hit its shoulder though, so it took a bit of damage.

Sean brandished his whip and rushed the green monster, leaving me to fight the other one on my own.

_Oh boy, _I thought sarcastically. It was not encouraging to see that XANA had recovered enough energy to create a new monster.

The lizard zipped forward to engage me and I rolled to the left side of the monster to avoid its attack. I was not versed in combat with these monsters, but I immediately saw the error of my ways. While I dodged his claws and teeth, its tail smacked me in the face.

"Only 40 Life Points left, Sammy," ANAX warned.

_Drat! _I thought.

I leaped high into the air and landed on my feet. The monster hissed at me in challenge. "Let's do this," I said.

* * *

><p><em>Vzzzm! Vzoom, vwum! <em>The red laser of Sean's whip slashed through the air with subtle noises as he attacked the lizard.

At the same moment Sean lashed out, the lizard did the same with its tail. The two met in the air and the laser coiled tightly around the monster's tail. Sean pulled backwards, but the monster wasn't giving up; it applied equal force in the opposite direction.

Sean was strong, but the tail was the lizard's main attack. It soon became clear that Sean would lose this match of tug-of-war. His feet began to slide and he wondered what he was going to do. Tennent made his decision for him.

"Laser Arrow!"

The green abomination shrieked as the arrow penetrated its weak point. It didn't have much time to complain- in a few seconds, it was as if it was never here.

"Nice teamwork!" Sean complimented Tennent.

They high-fived.

* * *

><p>As the flashing electric tail swished towards me, I brought my claws up in defense. It bounced off my guard, but he immediately attacked again.<p>

I wasn't prepared, and the tail coiled around my neck. _Zap! _Down to ten Life Points.

While it still had me in its grip, it tossed me unceremoniously off the platform.

As soon as I realized what he had done, I began screaming in terror. Once my Digital Envelope hit the fluid that was the Digital Sea, my code would be spread out all over the Internet, and I couldn't be brought back to Earth.

I felt something hit me in the back. I wrenched my eyes away from the swiftly approaching Sea to look up. Tennent was standing on the edge of the green land. That was the last thing I saw before was devirtualized.

* * *

><p>Brittany stood on the stage before Gavin Borrows and several other teachers who were observing try-outs. The play was called, "かぐやひめ." This translated to "The Moon Princess." It was about a girl called Kaguyahime, who was the shining princess. Kaguyahime found a shining bamboo stalk, and through a series of mysterious events, she finds herself on the moon, learning the shining secrets.<p>

Brittany was trying out for the Moon Princess, Kaguyahime. Unfortunately, so was Rachel.

After Brittany got done reading her lines, she exited the stage as the teachers applauded. Rachel stalked up to her with a very angry look.

"Why am I always competing with you?" She demanded.

"What are you talking about?" Brittany asked back.

"First it's with Sean, now it's with this!" Rachel was just getting started but Brittany cut her off.

"It's not like that with Sean and I-"

"Don't try and tell me that!" Rachel interrupted. "He's always around you! If it weren't for you, I'd..." Her voice trailed off.

Brittany sighed. _She's really jealous, _she thought.

Rachel walked away to sulk while Alyssa auditioned for Ojiisan, a maidservant of the princess who accompanied her on the journey.

After Alyssa finished, they sat off to the sides. As the audition drew on, they became more and more uncomfortable.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Alyssa asked Brittany after a few minutes.

"Yeah, let's go," Brittany said.

They knew that they couldn't leave their friends to fight XANA alone.

* * *

><p>Tennent watched as Sammy's data bits scattered away from his body, saving him from the terrible fate below. He was glad that he was such a great shot.<p>

"So we take this baddie down," Tennent said, "get to the Tower, and we save the world before dinner."

"Pretty much," Sean replied without shifting his eyes from the staring contest he and the lizard were having. It gave a challenging hiss.

After a few seconds passed, it lunged. Tennent and Sean rolled opposite directions.

"Super Stealth!" Sean commanded.

The monster zapped Tennent in the leg with its tail and looked around wildly, trying to spot Sean.

By the time the lizard realized where Sean way, it was too late; his blade had been stabbed through its XANA's eye.

It sunk its claws deep into Sean's chest before it exploded. Sean gasped as he depixelized from the wound outwards. He dropped to his knees and disappeared.

"Sean!" Tennent exclaimed. There was nothing he could do- Sean's trip to Lyoko was over.

* * *

><p>From the Lab, I watched as Sean lost all his Life Points. "Hurry!" I urged Tennent, "Get to the Tower!"<p>

With a look over his shoulder, he got up from his knelt position and began to run.

Without warning, a blue stream-like laser appeared over his shoulder. Before he could react, the beam shifted to hit him in his midsection and he froze solid.

"Bloks!" I warned. "Look out!"

The elevator hissed open. Brittany and Alyssa stood within its confines. "What are you doing here?" I asked in surprise.

A second later I shook my head and added, "Don't answer that, we haven't got time. Get to the Scanners! You're needed on Lyoko."

"Right away!" Alyssa said as she hit the button. Sean slid the cover off of the ladder on the side of the wall and emerged into the Lab.

"Was that Alyssa and Brittany?" He asked.

"Yeah, don't ask me what they're doing here, 'cause I don't know."

"You'd think the auditions would take longer than that," Sean commented.

* * *

><p>"We're ready to go!" Alyssa said as she stepped into the Scanners.<p>

"Never a dull moment," Brittany said with a smile.

"It feels good to be needed," Alyssa told her.

"It's a shame that the boys can't cope without us," Brittany replied.

The time for talking came to an end as the doors closed. It was time for action.

In a few short moments, the SuperComputer had recognized their DNA and began to construct their Digital Envelopes. That done, it scattered their atoms and transferred their consciousness to Lyoko.

Alyssa's imagined breath was knocked out of her as soon as she landed. She had no need to breath in the virtual realm, but you never shook off the feeling that you had to inhale and exhale.

She looked up and saw that her attacker was a giant lizard of sorts. Behind it, a Blok fired red lasers at a frozen Tennent until he disappeared. When the ice shattered, so did his Lyoko Avatar.

_Wheeiire! _Brittany's fan spiraled through the air towards the new monster's XANA's eye. It was batted away at the last moment by its fearsome tail.

_Womm! _That was the sound of an energy field forming in Alyssa's palm. She released it and the monster was coated in pink plasma. It roared in protest just before it exploded.

"Yeah!" Alyssa exclaimed.

A few seconds later, Brittany's second fan took out the Blok that had devirtualized Tennent.

"Great job!" ANAX said. "Now, Brittany, you've got the most experience with the Tower's programming, so you should be the one to perform the energy transfer."

"Alright," She consented. She was a lot more confident than last time.

And just like last time, it was pretty unremarkable. One meter shrunk down to zero and another one that was two thirds of the way full filled up the rest of the way.

"Excellent!" ANAX applauded. "I feel much better."

It was somewhat odd to think of a program having feelings, Brittany noted.

"That's great," Sammy said. "But I think it can wait another day to run the decoding program. After all, we'll need a Tower's resources, and we're down to just two Lyoko Warriors."

"Great," Alyssa said, uplifted by the thought.

* * *

><p>In the lab, we discussed our adventure. First things came first: What should we call the new monster?<p>

Brittany had asked this exact same question, and Tennent already had an answer.

"They look like giant lizards, right?" He started. We all nodded, so he continued. "So why not _call _them lizards? It's simple and obvious."

"Hmm," Sean said. "How about we switch it up a bit?" He proposed.

"How so?" Brittany asked.

"Instead of spelling it with a 'z,' why don't we spell it with an 'x,' to keep with the theme of the funky spellings of the other monsters?"

"Since when does 'x,' make the 'z,' sound?" Tennent asked.

"Hello?" I interrupted. "XANA? You realize that his name is spelled with an 'x?'"

"Oh, yeah," He said, waving his hand at me. "Whatever. Does everyone agree?"

We did. Lixard it was.

"Before we leave," Sean said. "I have a question."

"What's that?" I asked.

"How come the Lixard devirtualized me so quickly with its claws? I had lots of Life Points left, and the claws are only supposed to do 10 damage."

I was perplexed by this issue. He had a good question.

"Let's pull up the logs," I said.

"Logs? As in trees?" Tennent asked.

"Moron," I said to him. "The records."

I brought up the digital files and ANAX translated them into a rough animation. We saw Sean's mono-chromatic Avatar flinch as the claws stabbed into him. I hit the frame-by-frame function so I could see if my guess was correct.

I paused the footage as soon as I saw what I was looking for.

"There!" I exclaimed. "You can see that its claws penetrated the other side of your body. Since it was a full puncture, that's an instant devirtualization," I explained.

"I didn't realize that," Sean said.

"I guess I should have told you earlier," I said sheepishly.

"How'd you get that video?" Alyssa suddenly asked.

I just translated the digital impulses into actions and reactions of Lyoko's environment and coupled that data with the signals sent by your brains to reconstruct a simulation video."

"Huh?"

"Sammy's taken the information sent by everything that happened and translated it into the video," ANAX explained.

"You can do all that so quickly?" Brittany asked in disbelief.

"Well, I didn't do it all on my own," I said. "I fed the impulses through ANAX's coding procedures to get the video."

"So ANAX did all the work."

"Pretty much," I said.

It was a pretty pathetic display of my computer skills, letting a program do everything for me. I knew my friends didn't begrudge me that though.

* * *

><p>On the walk back to Kadic, the girls filled us in on what had happened. They didn't know much because they left early, but we were glad of that.<p>

When we made it back to the campus, we found the results posted on the wall of the auditorium where the try-outs had taken place.

"Hey!" Alyssa exclaimed. "Brittany! You got the part of the Moon Princess!"

"Cool!" Brittany said excitedly.

"But look," She pointed at the piece of paper on the wall as she examined it closer. "Three parts are still unfilled."

I walked over to read the paper as well. There were three princes needed for the story. The entire male cast was either a palace guard or a Moon guardian. No one had wanted to play the princes.

The three princes' names were Prince Iso, Ootomo, and Kuramochi.

"C'mon," Alyssa begged us. "It's so perfect! Three roles left and three of you! You've _got _to do it."

It was looking less and less like we had a choice about this matter.

Through our stuttering and protests, we managed not to give a definitive answer. However, we got a look that told we hadn't heard the end of this debate.

Girls could communicate a _whole lot _using just their eyebrows.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

"Wow, you've actually decided to join us for breakfast," Tennent commented as I sat down with my tray. I was in too good of a mood to let his jibe bother me.

"Today's the day!" I said. "ANAX will activate a Tower and-"

"Who's ANAX?" Rachel's voice interrupted me. Her two shadows – Julian and Phillip – stood behind her as usual.

"He's a character from a video game," Sean replied in an annoyed tone of voice. "It's really not your style, it's called DreamChaser, real complicated, nothing you could understand."

"Hmph!" She said with a flip of her hair. "C'mon, boys," She said to her followers as she walked off.

"We're gonna have to be a bit more discreet," Brittany said with a wince.

"Yeah, well," I said, lowering my voice. "We'll go to Lyoko and help him defend the Tower that he'll use to start the decoding process."

"You really think it'll work?" Alyssa asked.

"I really hope so," I answered her. "If it doesn't, then we've got nothing. It'll be a long time before we can develop a new program."

My friends looked apprehensive. "Don't worry," I assured them. "I'm pretty sure it'll work."

"Yeah, well what if XANA beats us on Lyoko and we can't finish the decoding?" Sean asked.

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," I told him.

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," Tennent mimicked.

"Shut up," Sean said.

"Shut up," Tennent parroted.

"Really? Can't you grow up?"

"Really? Can't you grow up?"

"I'm a big fat ugly baboon," Sean said with a smirk.

"Well at least you have the courage to admit it!" Tennent said letting out the laugh he'd been holding.

Sean stood up with a glare of anger in his eyes.

"Everyone _always _falls for that!" Tennent chortled.

"Uh-oh!" He said when he realized Sean was serious. "See you later!" He zipped away, knocking over his chair in the process. Sean gave chase, shouting something indiscernible.

"Oh, my," Brittany said with her face in her hands. "Will those two ever get tired of doing this?"

It was a rhetorical question with an obvious answer, and it was clear that Brittany didn't like that answer.

* * *

><p>"Hold it right there you two!" Jim bellowed at Tennent and Sean, who were barreling much too recklessly through the campus grounds.<p>

"Is that any way to act?" He demanded.

They both hung their heads in shame.

"To the principal's office, on the double!"

Quicker than they would have thought possible, they found themselves before Mr. Dunbar. They knew he was a strict man, and they couldn't expect any mercy.

Jim explained the situation and then looked at the two boys to see if they had anything to say in their defense. They didn't, so he proceeded to their sentence.

"Two hours of detention for each of you. I'm sure it will help you remember the rules in the future."

His work finished, Dunbar returned to the papers on his desk. Sean and Tennent were left to trudge back to face the school day.

When they were out of the admin building, Sean asked Tennent, "Do you know what rule we violated?"

"Uh-uh," Tennent said with a shake of his head. "How about you?"

"Nope." Sean answered. "But I'm sure there's some clause thrown in there that says we can be punished for any behavior a supervisor deems 'inappropriate.'"

"Which is just a license for Jim to make his own rules, pretty much," Tennent added.

"We'll have to find a copy of the rules to see if there's anything like that in there," Sean agreed.

"But in the meantime, Sammy's gonna kill us for getting this detention," Tennent said.

"Yeah, well, I guess we'll cross that bridge when we get there," Sean said with a shrug.

Tennent opened his mouth with the beginnings of a smile, but Sean beat him. "Don't even _think _about it, buster."

* * *

><p>School droned on for too long this day. Even though I normally paid good attention, I couldn't manage it today. My mind was on our mission.<p>

When the final bell rang at last, Brittany, Alyssa, and I were out the door. We were halfway out of the school yard when we realized that Tennent and Sean had fallen behind.

"What's the matter?" Alyssa asked to the distant forms of our friends. "Are you stuck?"

* * *

><p>Upon hearing Alyssa's question, Sean and Tennent began a silent conversation that few others could understand. Since they had grown up together, they were able to read each other's movements with precision.<p>

_What about our detention? _Tennent's arms and eyes said as he pointed.

_Do _you _want to tell them? _Sean asked Tennent with his face as he put on an expression.

_What, _Tennent communicated with a shrug. _Do we just skip out?_

_I guess so, _Sean conveyed. _Let's go, _his arms pointed.

When they caught up, they all headed to the Factory.

Little did they realize that they had picked up a follower.

* * *

><p>During the day, Rachel had found out that there was no such video game as DreamChaser, and there was no character called ANAX. A quick Internet search on her phone had proved this.<p>

Her suspicions aroused, she had decided to follow the group around to see where they went. She had no idea what she was getting into.

* * *

><p>"Okay, guys," I said from my chair. "We've chosen a Tower in the Mountain Sector."<p>

"It's got walls around it on three sides, and only a narrow platform leads to it. Hopefully it should be easy to defend because of that."

I activated the atomic process that was Virtualization and sent them on an interdimensional journey. Soon, Sean and I followed them.

Once on Lyoko, we didn't waste any time. I materialized our vehicles and the Tower behind us began to glow a dark blue.

"Well..." Tennent said. "What now?"

"Stand guard," ANAX instructed. "I've begun the rendering process. If I were you, I'd expect some resistance from XANA."

Tennent paced around, and soon all the stray pebbles had been kicked off the platform. He was clearly bored.

"So," Brittany said to Sean. "I really think you guys should do the play," she said. "Without those three characters, it won't work as good, and it would be cool for us to all do it as Lyoko Warriors, don't you think?"

"Eh..." Sean said. "I don't really want too..."

"C'mon," Brittany urged.

"Please!" Sean shouted. "I really don't want to hear about it." He immediately winced, realizing his mistake. He hadn't meant to get upset with her- I could tell.

Brittany turned away with a toss of her hair. It looked like he was in trouble now.

Before he could dig himself deeper in trouble by attempting to further the conversation, XANA interrupted. The low growling of Krabs announced XANA's monster of choice.

"What's up?" Tennent wondered aloud. "I was expecting more Lixards."

"Maybe XANA doesn't want us to get too comfortable fighting them," I offered.

"Or maybe he saves them for the Forest Sector," Alyssa added. "It seems they're best suited for combat on that territory."

"Good idea," Tennent said.

I agreed; it did sound like it could be.

The Krabs broke through the fog and we saw that they weren't alone. Kankrelats followed close behind, and my radar proved that Tarantulas were on the way as well.

"Time to go!" I said to both my friends and to ANAX. We hopped on our vehicles, and ANAX materialized three Ghosts and two Klankers to provide cover fire.

We flew towards XANA's monsters, ready for combat.

* * *

><p>Rachel carefully emerged from the manhole on the bridge to the Factory. Since she was following such a ways behind the Lyoko Warriors, she had lost her way a few times, but eventually managed to find where she thought they had gone.<p>

She stepped out of the hole and walked to entrance. It was a forbidding sight, the Factory was very old and it had a spooky feel to it. She proceeded with caution, unaware that her movements were being watched.

* * *

><p>"Major trouble," ANAX's digitally synthetic voice warned us. "XANA's sending impulses to take control of this Tower! If he succeeds, he might be able to steal the entire code for the journal!"<p>

"You don't have a back-up copy?" Brittany asked as she dodged a bolt from a Krab.

"We _do _have a back-up," I said. "But if XANA gets the information we're running through this Tower, he could void or decoding program by a virus, or something worse!"

"Ok," Alyssa said. "So it's a very bad thing if XANA takes over the Tower then!"

"Can we do anything to stop him?" Tennent asked as he blasted a Tarantula. His OverBoard bucked with the force of the explosion.

"I could try to shore up the Tower's resistance by transferring power from the SuperComputer," ANAX said.

"Isn't that a bit risky?" I countered.

"Yes it is," ANAX agreed. "But do you see any other options?"

I ducked down below the stream of blue lasers and hesitated a beat before answering, "No, go ahead and do it."

A window opened on my LI and showed ANAX's actions. Hopefully it would give us enough time to decode the files.

I jumped off the OverBlaze and landed right in front of a Kankrelat. I quickly rolled forward and ejected my Laser Claws to kill the monster. Before I could leap back on to my waiting vehicle, I was hit by a Tarantula.

"80 Life Points left, Sammy," ANAX warned.

The battle progressed, but I was unable to say who was winning. We had cut XANA's forces to just four Kankrelats and two Krabs, but we only had one remaining Ghost and one Klanker.

Then ANAX dropped the news on us.

"Rachel is in the Factory!"

"What?" Sean asked in surprise. "Did she follow us?"

In his momentary distraction, he took a hit, falling off of his bike.

"I suppose so," ANAX said. "But we don't have enough power for a Return to the Past since I rerouted the energy! One of you needs to go back to Earth and stop her from discovering the Lab."

Spinning his whip at a Kankrelat, Sean volunteered, "I'll go. I've got a plan."

"Good luck!" I said to him.

"Materialization, Sean!"

* * *

><p>With a plume of smoke, Sean materialized into the real world. He staggered out of the Scanner and dialed Rachel's number on his phone. When she answered, Sean said, "Rachel, I need your help. Can you meet me in the dorms?"<p>

"Um..." She sounded hesitant. Eventually, her natural predisposition won, and she replied, "Sure, I'll be right there."

As he hung up, Sean realized that he'd have to really race to beat Rachel back to school. She'd surely go slower than usual since she wasn't familiar with the route through the sewers.

But then, Rachel might have recognized where she was, and decided to go back to school above ground. Sean knew he needed to make a decision fast, because every second counted. He bolted up the ladder and went out of the Factory the long way. It was actually quicker than using the elevator if he sprinted.

He jumped down the manhole as soon as he came to it and sped towards the school. He got lucky; Rachel had chosen the other way.

Sean quickly found his way to the boiler room from the sewers and hot footed it to the dorms where he was supposed to meet Rachel.

He arrived just a few moments before Rachel did.

"What's with _you_?" She asked, noting his haggard breathing and reddened face.

"Long story," he said brushing the matter aside. "I need your help."

* * *

><p>"Well," Tennent said as he dodged a blast from a MegaTank. "You can't say XANA hasn't tried to stop us!"<p>

Three MegaTanks and the Scyphozoa had just appeared. All of us were getting low on Life Points. To counter the new arrivals, ANAX materialized a couple of Wolves for us.

"Hah," I said. "He's pushing pretty hard."

The MegaTanks had formed an arc at the back of the battle field, firing their deadly lasers whenever they had a clear shot.

In the time it took for me to leap up and destroy a Krab, the Scyphozoa captured Tennent. He had fired Laser Arrows in his defense, but the monster had blocked them all.

When I noticed the data-transfer window, I ran to his defense. I could _see _the Lyoko light fading from his eyes. They retained their dark gray color, but the glow was vanishing quickly.

"Ack!" I interjected as a MegaTank hit my leg. I fell to the ground and quickly blacked out.

* * *

><p>It is a gut-wrenching feeling. This monster known as the Scyphozoa is putting its feelers where they should never go: my Lyoko Data. This data had become a part of me, it gave me the Keys to Lyoko, and it gave me my increased abilities on Earth. It also now defined me. When XANA puts his evil claws there, an unexplainable feeling of dread and sickness comes over me. I fight against it, but nothing can be done.<p>

I can sense the light fading from my eyes, and I don't like it. The sounds of battle have all faded away, though I know that they're still there.

Suddenly, I hear the screech of the Scyphozoa! He's been hit by something! One of Brittany's fans passes in front of me, severing the digital tentacles that bind me. As I drop back to the ground, the full force of the struggle washed over me. The Scyphozoa is defeated, but the battle is far from won.

I dodge a laser coming from one of the remaining Kankrelats and begin to bound towards it. Adrenaline pumps through my veins.

It's not _real _adrenaline, Sammy has explained, and I don't really have veins on Lyoko either. But the effects are the same. I leap into the air and shout, "Laser Arrow!" My precisely aimed shot puts an end to the nuisance that once was a Kankrelat.

Turning around, I thank Brittany for freeing me from the Scyphozoa. She acknowledges my words with a nod of her head, and then she returns to battle.

We don't have time for a lot of conversation; we have a world to save. We are Lyoko Warriors.

* * *

><p>As I emerged from the Scanner, I shook my brown hair and pushed my glasses up my nose. I hurried up to the Lab to consult with ANAX.<p>

"How's the code coming?" I asked as soon as the elevator door opened. I rushed to the seat and put the headset on.

"It's going very well," ANAX said. "I see no problems, and it should be finished in several more minutes. Let's just hope that our friends can hold out that long."

"Yeah," I agreed. The next few minutes were some of the longest in my life; Brittany got devirtualized, and then Tennent. Alyssa was on her own with the last two monsters- A MegaTank and a Tarantula. She only had 20 Life Points left.

As the Tower's resistance against XANA's power waned, I thought that we were finished.

"No," I moaned.

"What is it?" Brittany asked.

"The Tower is losing strength!" I answered. "I don't think-" At that moment, a green flashing "!" opened on the screen.

"YES!" I exclaimed. "We did it!"

"Yeah!" Alyssa, Tennent, and Brittany added excitedly.

"I'm downloading the data now," ANAX said. A few moments later, he announced, "Finished."

"So soon?" I asked. "Those files are huge!"

"Not anymore!" It sounded like ANAX was smiling. "With the new render, the code is much simpler. As you thought, the only thing missing is the Lyoko Data that we can get from the Core!"

XANA dematerialized the remaining monsters, and ANAX's presence left the Tower. XANA had a silent defeat, but I was quite sure that he was screaming in anguish.

"Score one for the Lyoko Warriors!" Tennent said with a fist pump. He, Brittany, and I high-fived, and when Alyssa arrived, we did the same with her.

It was a joyous walk back to Kadic, and we soon met up with Sean. He was delighted to know that we'd succeeded, and so we all went to the Rec Room to celebrate.

While Brittany and Alyssa were having a game of Ping Pong, Sean pulled Tennent and me aside to explain what he had done with Rachel.

"We're doing the play," Sean said simply.

"That's not surprise," Tennent said with a smirk. "With the way Brittany reacted-"

Sean cut him off. "I got Rachel to make sure that we're in it. In doing so, I also got her off our trail."

Even though I probably wouldn't enjoy the play too much, it would still be fun to do it with my friends. And my spirits were buoyed up on the knowledge that we were so close to finding out how to beat XANA. Tomorrow, we were going to get the data we needed from the Core.

But little did I know we would not get that information. Nor would we get it the day after, nor in the weeks to come, nor in the months to come. For something extremely monumental would take place that would change Lyoko, and would permanently affect our fight against XANA.

**Author's Notes: I have to say, I really like the 2nd person view when Tennent is captured by the Scyphozoa. And there's been some hype about the play, "The Moon Princess." You actually won't be seeing the play in this Book, it's coming to a close. But you will see the Lyoko Warriors in the play sometime, because it's kinda cute, I think. I can't decide whether it will be in the appendix of Book 3 (Where it would chronologically take place) or a flashback. It's pretty long for a flashback, so it probably won't be that, but you never know.**

**Thanks for reading!**


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

Deep inside the Factory, things came to life. Machines began to whirr and the conveyor belts started moving. Robotic assembly arms rotated into position and they started working on the materials being fed through the line.

Slowly but surely, humanoid shapes developed from the metal, wiring and electronic circuits. XANA's plan was unfolding.

* * *

><p>"Belpois! Della Robbia!" Jim thundered.<p>

"Oh, no," Tennent muttered.

It was time for the nightly roll call, and Jim had just spotted the two detention escapees.

"Where were you yesterday?" He demanded. "You had detention."

I was surprised at this. They hadn't said anything about it. I supposed that's what their hesitation was about earlier when we were moving to the Factory.

Jim didn't wait for an answer to his question. "I've had it with you two goons! Tomorrow, you're doing double detention- that's four hours!"

"Man..." Sean complained.

"As for the rest of you," Jim said turning his attention back to the group, "it's time to hit the sack. I'd better not find anyone doing something they'll regret later."

His speech and roll call finished, he went to his dorm and shut the door. The rest of the boys did the same, unwilling to share Sean and Tennent's punishment.

I spent most of the night sleeping, which was a change of schedule for me. When morning came, I hopped out of bed, and immediately felt as if something was wrong.

"Hey ANAX," I said.

"Good morning," he replied.

"Do you mind if we check something out?"

"What do you need?" ANAX asked. Good old ANAX, always willing.

I ran some checks on the program, but of course, I couldn't access the Core's data from my computer. ANAX would have to do that while we covered him.

In the end, it was a wasted morning, and a pointlessly missed breakfast. There was no new information or confidence I had gathered from the check, and I was starting to have doubts.

* * *

><p>On the girl's floor, Brittany walked into the bathroom.<p>

"Why the long face?" Rachel asked. "You look like you're in a _bad _mood."

"I am," Brittany said. "So just go away."

"I'm sure you'll be happy to hear," Rachel continued anyway, "that Sean, Tennent, and Sammy will be doing the Moon Princess play."

"How is that?" Brittany asked. "They didn't even audition!"

"That's true, but I have my ways," Rachel said with a mysterious look.

"Wait," Brittany said as Rachel began to leave. "Do you mean to say that you _helped _them get the parts? Why on earth would you do that?"

Rachel was finished talking though. She walked away, leaving Brittany with unanswered questions.

"What was that all about?" Alyssa asked, coming up from another part of the room.

"I dunno," Brittany said with a shrug. "C'mon, let's hurry up."

After eating breakfast and noting the absence of Sammy, they went to their first class, ready to start a new school day.

* * *

><p>I had to rush to get to class on time because I had spent so long on that useless hunt.<p>

I quickly found Sean and Tennent and sat near them. "What did you guys do yesterday?" I asked as the bell rang.

Tennent whispered to me, "Jim caught Sean chasing after me and he decided we were being too rough."

"Ouch," I said. "But in the meantime, you've earned yourselves four hours of detention. That means the earliest you guys could come to the Factory is 7:20 PM, and that's far too late."

They didn't like this. "You can't decode the journal without us! That's not how we operate; we should all be there for something so important!" Sean whisper-shouted.

"Look," I countered. "Do _you _know how much XANA can accomplish in four hours? _I_ don't. And I sure don't want to push the limits by giving him more time to build up his forces. Did you forget that ANAX can't make Droids in Sector 5? We're his only protection there."

"That's exactly our point," Tennent said. "Since ANAX is the only one who can access the Core, and he can't make Droids to protect him, then we need _all _the Lyoko Warriors there to defend him."

"If it goes badly with Brittany, Alyssa, and me, then we can always try again on another day. But unless that happens, we have to make our attempt as soon as possible, to make sure XANA has minimal time to prepare."

"Do you three mind if I teach a class?" Mrs. Morgan interrupted our conversation.

"Of course not, ma'am," I said.

"Then you would do well to pay attention, and not be visiting with your friends. There are quizzes and tests on this material you know," She replied.

After allowing a few minutes to pass, Tennent started the debate again. "We could leave the campus at lunch then," he proposed. "This way, we shave three hours off, and we might be finished before our detention."

"And what if we're _not _finished?" I challenged. "You could get suspended for missing your detention twice!"

"Relax," Sean said to me. "We have three whole hours to get it done. And it's just a data retrieval mission. If my understanding is right, then you can apply it later, _after _we're back on Earth."

I was silent. He had a good point.

He went on, "And if by some freakish series of events we end up spending more than three hours on Lyoko, you can just send us back if we haven't been devirtualized already."

That was two points for him. Seeing the logic, I conceded, even though I would miss four classes that day.

In between periods, we informed the girls of Sean and Tennent's dilemma, and of our plan. They didn't like it, but they were willing to go along with it since it meant we could all be there to get the very important information.

We had planned it all out, but still we failed to take into account the detail that was Jim. Just before lunch started, he spirited Sean and Tennent away to the lunch table to make sure they didn't try to use the break to slip away. Sometimes I got the feeling that Jim knew more about our activities than he let on.

Sitting at a separate table, the girls and I discussed things.

"We'd already committed to leaving at lunch," Brittany said. "You know how much I hate changing things when I've committed."

"Yes, yes, I know," I told her, holding my hands up in my defense. "But it doesn't look like our idea is working."

"But now I don't know what to do," Alyssa said. "But the main reason I want them to come with us is just because of sentimentality. That's not a very good thing to go on, but at the same time, it _would _help to have them there with us."

And that explained our indecision. There were strong points for either choice, going without them or waiting. It was not often that we were faced with such a choice.

Fortunately, (or, I should probably say, 'unfortunately') XANA made the decision for us.

Screams were heard from several yards away. All the students were drawn to the large windows to see what the commotion was about.

Kids ran by the window and a few seconds later, an eight foot tall robot sprinted by at twice their speed. Instantly, hysteria erupted in the room. The few teachers there made no attempt to settle the situation, for they themselves were panicking.

"Looks like we've got a problem!" Alyssa yelled over the noise of screams.

"No kidding!" I replied. "I'm going to send ANAX a call."

He answered promptly and I told him that there should be an activated Tower.

"I'm not detecting one, but now that you mention it, the Super Scan seems to behaving strange. Let me check it out."

Literally less than 10 seconds later, ANAX cracked the program blocking the Super Scan. "There was an extremely weak firewall hindering the Super Scan from detecting this Tower. It was not registered as an alert because it was so weak. I quickly destroyed it, and the activated Tower is in the Ice Sector."

Right now, I couldn't worry about XANA's tactics, or how he managed to engineer such a firewall. The thought crossed my mind, but I knew we simply didn't have time for any kind of speculation or experimentation.

As I continued the conversation, I exited the building with my friends. All the rest of the students had scattered.

"That's great, ANAX, we're heading for the Factory now."

I closed the phone line and looked up at my friends. "How come we didn't get an alert for an activated Tower?" Sean asked.

"I don't know," I replied. "XANA messed something up. We've got to work quickly this time, because I'm betting that at least a dozen people have called the police."

The robot suddenly came into view. It was really, really, tall, and proportionally wide to make it humanoid. It didn't have much for a face, just a photo-receptor placed where the eyes would be.

"Run!" Tennent said.

We were fast, but the robot was much faster. I saw over my shoulder that it had some sort of extra mechanism on its wrist. It raised its appendage and the sound of a gun firing spooked us.

Just a few inches away from Brittany's feet, and puff of dirt appeared. More quickly followed.

"He's shooting at us!" I exclaimed.

We veered off our course to the Factory to take cover in some bushes. The sound of the robot firing did not abate.

"Aah!" Sean said unexpectedly. He fell backwards, holding his right arm. Blood trickled out between his fingers. He was hit!

"We've got to move!" Brittany said decisively. We sprinted off to find cover indoors.

When we slammed the doors of the Science Building behind us, we examined Sean upper arm, where the projectile had hit.

"It's not firing bullets," I concluded. "Probably just flecks of scrap metal found in the Factory. I have no doubt that they can still be deadly though."

The wound was deep, but small in size. It hadn't hit a joint, so it did not affect Sean's movement much.

"Alyssa," I said. "Why don't you and Tennent stay here to keep the robot busy while the rest of us get to the Factory?"

"Sounds good," She said. Tennent agreed as well.

As Sean, Brittany, and I ran to the back door, the glass in the doors shattered. _Two _robots advanced upon the building.

"Just go!" Tennent yelled when he noticed our hesitation. "We'll cover you!"

I hated leaving them behind to face the threat alone, but we still had a job to do. The three of us turned around and ran out the door.

* * *

><p>"Let's go!" Tennent grabbed Alyssa's arm and they ran down the stairs. The robots followed them with no hesitation.<p>

They ran down the hall and turned into one of the rooms. "This room has a window!" Tennent said. "We can smash it and get outside. Hopefully this will throw them off!"

The closed and locked the door behind them. Locking it might buy them a few seconds, or it might not. But the chance was worth the extra second.

Tennent punched the window as hard as he could. It bounced off, rattling the window. Tennent kneeled on the ground and clutched his hand.

"Who do you think you are? Superman?" Alyssa asked. "These windows are reinforced!"

"Yeah," Tennent said. "I remember that now..."

"So what now?" Alyssa demanded. "We're trapped in this room and the robots are going to be here any second!"

_Wump! _A massive dent appeared in the metal door.

Alyssa clenched her teeth. _What are we gonna do? _

Suddenly, a voice echoed through the hall. "Alright! Put your hands in the air and come outta there!"

* * *

><p>The robots rotated their waists to look at the police officers who had shown up at the top of the stairs. Their handguns were drawn.<p>

"Woah," One officer said. "Those kids were serious! It really _is _a robot!"

One robot turned away from the door and charged the men, dodging the bullets fired in his direction.

As the metal monstrosity neared, bullets began striking their target.

_Bwum! Bwum! Bwum!_

They weren't supposed to make that sound. The second officer quickly noticed this.

"Our bullets are just bouncing off!" He yelled. That was the last he managed to say before the robot had tackled him. A giant metal fist left him unconscious.

The second officer managed to dodge the attack of the robot and hurriedly yelled instructions into his radio. "We have a situation!" He shuffled away, leading the robot from the kids. "We've got some sort of robotic instigator and our bullets aren't stopping it. We need EMP weapons, now!"

A shattered piece of metal sliced into his back. He collapsed to the ground and looked behind to see the quickly approaching robot.

* * *

><p>In the room that Tennent and Alyssa were stuck in, the robot smashed to door down.<p>

They dove behind the desk in the room for cover, and the wooden structure immediately began to deteriorate with the rapid fire.

Tennent jumped out from behind his cover and sprang at the wall. When his feet hit their target, he pushed off, flying towards the robot. "Yeeaah!" He cried.

As planned, he landed squarely on its shoulders. He placed his hands over the robot's eye, which disabled it, and also gave him a good grip.

"Go!" He yelled to Alyssa. She quickly took off and went out the smashed down door.

Just a few moments later, the robot shook Tennent off and shot at him. He reflexively jerked to one side and avoided the strike. He jumped up and followed Alyssa out the door.

The robot was quick to follow him out and caught up to him before he reached the broken down doors.

_KrrrrZAP!_

A blue bolt of energy soared over Tennent head and collided with the robot, causing it to spasmodically jerk.

Immediately Tennent ran away from the danger, behind the line of soldiers that arced in front of the Science building.

"I'm glad you're safe, son," The commanding officer said. He had dark red hair and his nametag read, "Sgt. Fox."

"It's good to _be _safe, sir," Tennent said simply.

_Hmm... _Fox thought. _What's with this kid? None of the other students reacted so calmly. _

_And there's something funny about his eyes... _He shook the thought off. It was nothing.

Suddenly, _click click click._

"Watch out!" One of the soldiers screamed. The robot had raised its arm and was attempting to fire.

"We have an emergency!" Fox shouted into his microphone. "Electromagnet Pulse does not disable the threat! I repeat: EMP does not disable the threat!"

While the "gun," may not work, the robot was still capable of fighting hand-to-hand. Some of the soldiers were taking a serious beating due to the uselessness of their weapons.

"Get to safety!" Fox ordered Tennent.

With no way to refuse as a civilian, Tennent ran.

* * *

><p>Digital impulses flew through the cables signaling the SuperComputer. When it received the command a microsecond later, it began the construction of the digital Avatars of Brittany, Sean, and I. When the mechanism was complete, the three of us dropped down into the cold of the Ice Sector.<p>

"Woah..." Sean said as the three of us staggered backwards at the sight before us. Rows and rows of monsters stood guard in front of a distant Tower. Slythers, Krabs, and Tarantulas abounded, but there was no shortage of weaker monsters. And there at the front of the contingent was the worst of all: Hannah.

"It has been _so _long since I have seen you," She said quietly. "I will relish this day, for today..." She paused. "_XANA wins!_"

With no further preamble, the mountain of monsters descended upon our pathetic defenses.

"ANAX!" I cried for help. _He warned us that there were many monsters, but he never said that there was _this _many! _I thought.

Hannah leaped for me and I caught her purple topped staff between my glowing green claws. I pushed the staff aside and she stuck again, but I dodged to the side.

Then the lasers started. With well over 30 monsters, I'm not even sure how we survived that day. A veritable wall of red light was flying at us.

There was absolutely nothing I could do in offense. I was constantly dodging either laser bolts or the electricity from Hannah.

I let a Slyther get too close and his mighty claws ripped into my shoulder sending me sprawling backwards. As it closed in for the kill, it seemed to hesitate. In that moment, Vine leaped from behind me and barreled into the monster, bowling him over. A blue laser flashed and it was all over for the Slyther.

"Vine!" I said joyously. "You're here!"

"As are my brothers," He replied. "We cannot let XANA win!"

More of ANAX's droids materialized; Klankers, Disks, Ghosts, and Swoopers as well.

With the new arrivals, the fight balanced out. It was a wonder that all of us had only lost a few life points when the odds were stacked so highly against us. Then it hit me; XANA _wanted _us to stay alive. It was the only explanation.

This thought troubled me, but I couldn't let it slow me down. I just needed to keep an eye out for the Scyphozoa.

From out of the thick of battle, a Slyther suddenly rose up in my sight. I'd really had it with those creatures.

It swiped a claw at me and I jumped over it, onto the monster's back. I slashed my claws at its armor and they clanged off. It roared and then bucked me off. I fell to the ground and landed hard on my back.

Suddenly, "Yaaah!" Sean fell from the sky above me and plunged his sword into the area behind the monster's armor with a two handed, downward thrust. Working quickly, he ripped the armor off with the same blow that sliced through its eye. It uttered one last screech before exploding.

Sean back flipped off the monster's body to avoid the blast. He landed deftly and scurried back into the think of the fighting. I too, got back on my feet and continued the fight.

* * *

><p>Minutes later, the battle still raged hot.<p>

_Chaos, _Brittany thought. _Utter chaos. I'd hate to see how Earth would be if XANA got his claws on it. _And unbeknownst to her, she would.

Rarely did a second go by when there was not a laser to deflect with her fans or dodge. As she fought her way through the heaving mass of monsters, she realized that she had been pushed back, quite a ways from the Tower.

Determined to fight her way back to her friends, she fought with renewed zeal, but XANA's forces seemed limitless. For every monster she would strike down, two more would take its place. It took great discipline to not scream out her frustration.

She dove under a volley of red lasers and at the last possible second pulled up with a somersault. She used her momentum and sprang into the air, hurling her fans as she did so. One missed its target, but the other struck true, right in the center of the Tarantula's eye.

As she reached up her arms to catch the returning weapons, a blast hit her from the side. A gang of Kankrelats blocked her path!

She ran backwards to where her fans should have landed, but she didn't find them there. Hannah stood nose to nose with her, and Brittany was forced to take a step back out of surprise.

With a cruel grin, Hannah sent a huge stream of purple electricity flying towards Brittany's Lyoko form. The energy enveloped her, and Hannah forced her into the air.

A purple aura surrounded Brittany as the sparks flew. She opened her mouth to scream and more sparks poured forth from there. When she finally opened her eyes, electricity shot forth, making it impossible to see her real eyes.

The power was paralyzing; Brittany could hardly move as the beam sucked her digital life away. Suddenly, the flow stopped and she dropped back down to the icy terrain. "Only 10 Life Points left, Brittany!" ANAX warned.

Hannah's purple XANA-fied eyes pulsed as she lingered over Brittany's prone form. Brittany's own purple eyes glared back at her persecutor.

The effects of her attack were visible; dark scorch marks covered Brittany's face, arms, and torso. She looked down at herself in disbelief. _How come I'm actually burned? _She wondered.

Hannah's eyes pulsed again as she closed in for the death blow. Brittany knew it was coming and she rolled to the left to avoid the crushing attack.

Such was the force that Hannah used that her staff became embedded deeply into the ice. Brittany took her opportunity to grab her fans from behind Hannah and launch a counter-offensive.

"SuperSpark!" Hannah exclaimed, abandoning her weapon.

Brittany's fans twirled on, passing through the spot where Hannah used to be, before returning to Brittany's grasp.

* * *

><p>The monsters had forced me away from my friends. I was very close to the Tower, but there was no way I could get through. I spun my claws in a precise pattern, catching most all of the lasers thrown at me. I ducked to one side occasionally when my hands did not react quickly enough.<p>

I had a Klanker on each of my flanks and a Swooper flew overhead providing a bit of cover fire.

This stand-off lasted for too long. It was clear that XANA was playing for time; no monsters made any advances past shooting at me from a comfortable distance. It was time to end this.

I leaped into the air towards a Blok with frightening speed. A laser hit me full in the chest and stopped me dead.

"Just 50 Points left," ANAX warned.

I was not allowed any time to nurse my wounds as the monsters kept up the barrage. I ducked in and slashed the Blok's eye before jumping back to my allies.

As we resumed our high-speed and high-stakes game of reflexes, I noticed that the remaining monsters shifted to fill in the hole left by the Blok.

I fought the frustration that welled up inside me. I had to stay focused if I wanted to win this fight.

* * *

><p>"Rrrrgh!" Sean grunted as he struggled. A Krab was bearing its weight down on Sean as he attempted to keep the monster away. Its foreleg was caught in Sean's grip, but the Krab was in control of the situation, not Sean. He was on his knees, barely able to keep the Krab's weight from crushing him.<p>

Conveniently, the other monsters had decided to stop shooting at Sean because they knew it would be better for them _not _to dislodge him from the Krabs control.

And while he was incapacitated, ANAX's forces were quickly falling to the numbers of XANA.

Summoning up another reserve of strength, Sean pushed the leg to one side, grabbed the leg higher up, and swung to the top of the monster. A quick thrust later, the monster was defeated.

Sheathing his sword, Sean turned around as he activated his whip. He stared at the red laser and thought about its color for a moment. ANAX's Droids' lasers were blue. _Should I get Sammy to change to color? _He thought.

He lashed out the whip, ensnaring the left claw of the nearest Slyther. He'd worry about these things later.

As the two forces fought against one another, XANA's dominance was clear. The Slyther launched lasers at Sean, forcing him to dodge. This slackened his grip on the weapon, while the crackling laser kept a good hold on the Slyther's arm. But Sean knew that the whip would eventually cleave of its arm if it didn't make a different move quickly. He let that thought encourage him.

After Sean jumped to avoid a laser shot at his feet, the Slyther gave a powerful jerk, pulling him toward itself.

Sean lost his grip on his whip, and before he could draw his secondary weapon, the Slyther had him in its hands. A brief second later, the Slyther chucked him into the air.

_Huh? _Sean thought. _What did he do that for?_

The answer was revealed with Sean twisted his body to see behind him. The Scyphozoa! Still midair, there was nothing he could do. The tentacles snatched him from the sky and immediately subdued him. Sean was forced to be still as XANA copied his Lyoko Data, piece by piece.

* * *

><p>"Oh no!" ANAX exclaimed. "The Scyphozoa has captured Sean! Someone do something!"<p>

"We _can't_, ANAX," Brittany said woefully. Hannah's staff passed just by her.

"I can't even see Sean from where I am, the monsters have pushed me so far back!"

"Hah!" Hannah said. "Victory is ours!" With a spinning slash, Brittany was devirtualized.

Hannah stood over the rapidly fading digital form with a smile of arrogance. Everything was falling into place.

* * *

><p>When I heard ANAX's message, I was mortified. I was at least half a mile away from Sean, and even with a vehicle I would be shot down long before I could reach him.<p>

When I saw that Brittany had been devirtualized, my panic level increased.

My mind was made up: I had to try it. I materialized the OverBlaze by ducking behind my remaining Klanker guard. When it appeared, I jumped on it and took off.

"Be swift!" ANAX said. "Time is short!"

I soared high above the battlefield and I was able to see Sean's predicament. Before long, I felt impact beneath me. My vehicle jerked, but it didn't explode. I kept going with a determined look in my eyes.

I was dodging as best as I could, but since I didn't have a good view of the source of the lasers, the inevitable happened. A second bolt struck my OverBlaze, and then a third. I was now spiraling out of control towards the ground. I hit with tremendous impact, barely managing to survive the fall.

When my arm hit the ground, it opened the cell phone line to Alyssa's phone. I hadn't even realized she was calling me; such was the noise of the battle. Apparently, ANAX had missed it too; he had a lot on his hands right now.

Too busy to answer or close the line, I continued. As I fought my way through the monsters, I saw that the Scyphozoa had dropped Sean on the ground.

"No!" I yelled.

* * *

><p>Words could not describe what Sean was feeling. The Scyphozoa dropped him and he landed hard, but he barely felt it. His eyes stared blankly at the synthetic sky above him as he struggled to move.<p>

An immeasurable amount of time passed before Sammy's visage appeared before him. By the way the scene was moving, Sean guessed that he was being shaken. A look of horror was spreading through Sammy's face.

"I'm... still here," he wheezed.

"Thank God!" Sammy said sincerely.

Sean's senses were beginning to return. Sammy helped him stand up. Briefly, Sean wondered why they were able to sit here like ducks and not be devirtualized. He later found out that ANAX had summoned the last of his strength to make more monsters – wolves – to protect them.

* * *

><p>I was terrified when I saw Sean's body. At first, I thought he was dead, but once I had confirmation that he was alive, I noticed something that might have been worse. <em>His eyes no longer glowed.<em>

They retained their ash-gray color, but no light came forth from them. As close as my face was to his, I could even see the orange reflection from my glowing eyes; that's how bright they were supposed to be. But Sean's weren't.

I materialized the OverLoad, but I sat in the driver's seat; Sean was in no condition to drive.

"We've got to get out of here!" I said as we retreated from the battle.

"What are we going to do?" He weakly asked.

"Don't worry," ANAX said. "I've got a plan..."

* * *

><p>XANA was cackling with glee. He had achieved his end. The ethereal voice of Hannah interrupted his party.<p>

"Master," she said. "why would you not let me destroy Brittany when I had her in my control? I devirtualized her in the end on your command!"

"I didn't know which human it would be best to send the Scyphozoa to at that point. If Brittany was weakened, she would have been an easy target. When I saw that Sean was available, I ordered you to destroy Brittany because she was no longer needed."

A pause passed between the two of them. "You must learn not to question my judgment," XANA chastised. "Lest you become like that abomination ANAX: Weak and misguided."

"Master," Hannah said humbly. "You know I would never betray you with such weakness."

"Yesss," XANA purred. "I know."

A moment later, XANA said, "Return your focus to the battle. We will see how much further we can stretch our advantage."

* * *

><p>Alyssa stood in front of Tennent with her hands on her hips. She tilted her head slightly to one side and positioned her legs slightly uneven. This pose meant that she was in an argument, and she would not lose- no matter what.<p>

"You know what will happen if there's a death!" Tennent said. "We can't just leave."

"Yes we can!" Alyssa protested. "There's nothing we can do to fight the robot. There's nothing _anyone _can do short of launching a missile at it. The soldiers are in control of the situation, but on Lyoko, things are really rough. You heard how chaotic the battle was!"

"But some of the soldiers have potentially fatal wounds!" Tennent argued. "If any of them die, we need to know so that we don't launch a Return!"

"But we can't do anything about that!" Alyssa shot back. "Either way, Return or no return, it would still be bad, and their lives are out of our hands! Besides, they have medical assistance here; I'm sure all the soldiers will recover. They don't even have real bullet wounds."

"Okay, okay," Tennent said. "We'll go. But don't blame me if we end up in a real jam after the Return to the Past."

Minutes later, they arrived at the Factory. Brittany was in the Lab with a hand on her forehead.

"What's wrong?" Tennent asked.

"Things are going _really _bad!" Brittany explained. "XANA's stolen Sean's Lyoko Data, dozens of monsters are still alive, and ANAX's forces are dwindling. I don't know how we're going to make it out of this one."

"We're headed for the Scanners," Alyssa said.

"I'll virtualize you," ANAX replied.

A short while later, they stood a good distance away from the battle. Sammy and Sean zoomed up to them on the OverLoad and stopped.

"How are things going on Earth?" Sammy asked.

"The military has it under control for the moment. We'll need a Return to avoid any awkward questions about where that robot came from."

"Well we're going to have to deactivate the Tower first," Sammy replied. "And I really don't know how we're going to do that."

* * *

><p>"Here's how," ANAX said. "I'm going to make two more SpikeSaurs. I'll dematerialize all of my monsters on the field to recover some energy. When they're formed, the nine of you can charge at once. We just might be able to push through."<p>

"Ok," I said wearily. I knew that you couldn't get "tired," on Lyoko, but mentally, I was drained. We'd had a long day.

A bright shining circle appeared in the sky and soon an orange SpikeSaur and a red one emerged.

I materialized the OverWing, OverGlide, and OverBoard and we each got a vehicle. I took the OverWing.

We throttled the accelerators and set off. XANA's forces appeared to consolidate to meet our charge.

Just before we struck his defenses, a blast of energy hit right in the center of us, blowing our group apart. This devirtualized Sean and I, since we were so low on Life Points.

When I materialized in the Scanner, I collapsed on the floor, too weak to do anything but sit there. Sean felt the same way.

* * *

><p>"Darn it!" Tennent exclaimed. He looked above and saw Hannah flying up there. She descended rapidly, and that was the last he saw of her for the rest of the battle. He assumed that such a strong attack must have taken a lot out of her.<p>

Then the monsters attacked, separating them further. Before long, Tennent found himself up against impossible odds. It took a great deal of effort to simply survive.

When he least expected it, the Scyphozoa's tentacles reached out and enveloped him from behind.

_No way! _Tennent thought in horror. _I thought the Skippy would have run away after it got Sean's data!_

ANAX tried to help Tennent, but it was futile. The SpikeSaurs were kept at bay by Slythers and Hornets. Alyssa was too far away to do anything.

For the second time that day, a Lyoko Warrior hit the ground with the light stolen from his eyes.

* * *

><p>"How could anything go so wrong?" I yelled in anguish. I had finally found the strength to climb up to the Lab, but now I was questioning whether or not it was worth it.<p>

I prepared for the worst- Alyssa being taken as well. But surprisingly, that never came. The might of the SpikeSaurs may not have been enough to save Tennent, but there were now only a handful of XANA's monsters left. He decided to back off for now.

"Have your peace," XANA spat through the speakers. "I win this round." The Tower deactivated itself and the remaining monsters disappeared.

We were all too shocked by the previous events to really register the fact that XANA had just spoken directly to us.

It was a mind-numbing sensation. We, the invincible Lyoko Warriors, had lost.


	21. Epilogue

Epilogue

The five of us sat in the Factory. We had launched a Return to the Past to erase XANA's evil effects on Earth, but that did nothing to affect his victory on Lyoko.

Despite all that had happened, we still had a journal to decode. I was prepping the mission with a grim face. That's when I noticed something weird about the Core of Lyoko.

"ANAX," I said. "Give me a read-out of the activity in the Core. Something seems strange..."

"Right away," ANAX said. Even he was more subdued than usual. We all were.

The analysis screen popped up as well as a flashing red exclamation point.

"What's all this?" I asked in confusion.

"What's going on?" Brittany inquired.

"I don't know!" I told her. "My access to the Core is cut off!"

"Sammy," ANAX said. "Take a look at this."

He highlighted a portion of code, one of the few that were displayed.

"That's XANA's digital signature!" I exclaimed in realization.

"Now take a look at this."

"No..." I said as I began to recognize what was going on. I brought up the files from some of our previous experiments and compared the two codes. _Identical._

The lines of code referred to Sean's unique Lyoko Data pattern.

"This changes things," ANAX murmured.

* * *

><p>It was late at night and the weak light of the moon shone into my dorm. We were discussing the latest developments.<p>

"So what happened to me while I was on Lyoko?" Brittany asked. She described to us the burn marks that had appeared.

"Did you feel any extra pain from them?" I asked.

"No," She replied.

"Then I'm guessing it's just a new XANA tactic. He inserted some special code that added to Hannah's attack. I guess this only happens when you take heavy damage from her electrical attacks."

"So you think it's just some strategy to frighten us?" Alyssa asked.

"Probably," I said. "XANA doesn't really gain anything else from it."

"So what about the robots?" Tennent began.

"What _about _the robots?" I parroted.

"They were pretty much invincible. The soldiers' bullets didn't hurt them, and the EMP shots didn't disable them. What gives?" He expounded.

I was silent. This was shocking news to me, and I didn't know how to answer it. I was quite unnerved by XANA's ability to create near invincible robots.

"Allow me to try to explain this," ANAX said. "I believe this has to do with the way XANA was controlling the robots. When someone or something becomes XANA-fied, a static field is used to control all movements. For humans, XANA probably uses some mind-mask to stop the human's will from interfering.

"So instead of making a robot that could move fully on its own, XANA could have just made the robots with moveable joints. From there he possessed them to control their every movement. This force field reflected the bullets, and because the electricity in the form of a Spectre, the EMP did not affect XANA's ability to manipulate the robots was not impeded."

"Thanks, ANAX," I said after a couple seconds. "That seems like a logical explanation."

"Also," Brittany added. "Is it back to square one again with the journal?"

"Not really," I replied. "I could try to decode more from the original copy, but I've already done all the easy parts. The harder parts won't come without months and months of work without the Lyoko Data, and by that time XANA may have been finished in the Core. I'll keep working, but really the only thing we can do is to hope for the best."

"So let me get this straight," Sean said. I winced as I realized that it was painfully obvious how his eyes lacked their glow.

"XANA has blocked access to the Core so we can't decode the journal. On top of that, he's doing something in there with my data, and we have no idea what."

"Pretty much," I sighed as I swiveled my chair back and forth.

A few moments of silence passed.

"Is that it?" Alyssa asked. "Are we just going to let XANA win so easily?"

When no one answered, she continued, "Think about it this way. XANA captured both Sean _and _Tennent, and the world hasn't come to an end."

"Yet," Tennent added darkly.

She ignored him and went on with her speech. "It seems to me that XANA needs the data from all five of us! With the two that he got, he achieved something, but I don't think he's gotten everything he wanted just yet!"

Our spirits began to lift as we realized that she was right.

"We don't know what XANA can do with that data, but it doesn't mean we can't still fight against him!" I spoke up. Alyssa glanced at me appreciatively.

"Whenever XANA finishes whatever evil he's working in the Core, we can still fight him, no matter the odds."

"And we can also decode the data in the journal," Brittany added. "That's sure to help!"

"We'll never let XANA win!" Tennent said. "Because we're Lyoko Warriors!"

"I sense a group hug coming," Sean said drily.

It was impossible to resist. A few seconds passed, and we heard a noise from my computer. From our hug, we all looked at the screen.

"What about me?"

As we laughed, we realized that our zeal had been renewed. We were down, but not out. Whenever XANA showed his ugly face again, he could be sure that he'd get what's coming to him.

But in the weeks and months to come, we would see nothing of XANA or his monsters.

* * *

><p>XANA cursed when ANAX accessed the Core of Lyoko. He had no idea what they were doing there, but now his cover was blown; they knew where he was.<p>

But it didn't make a difference in his plans. Throughout the entire struggle, he was in control the entire time and he knew it. The Lyoko Warriors had never managed to offer much of an offense.

XANA resumed his coding, preparing the next stage of his plan.

To Be Continued...

**Author's Notes: Book 2 is now finished! Actually, it's a pretty sad ending, the Lyoko Warriors lost. And they'll be doing a lot of losing in the months to come...**

**Thoughts are welcome, I'd love to know what you thought of the story. :)**

**Keep an eye out for Book 3, which will be up soon!**

**Thanks for reading!**


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